Tamers Requiem, Book 4: Revival
by Crazyeight
Summary: As the Tamers continue to grow, a mysterious entity comes to the real world, seeking to test them. Dangers from the digital world increase, and a Tamer finds himself living two lives, one which straddles the darkness of the heart. Life continues…
1. Shuffling the Deck

A/N: Before continuing, for those of you being introduced to this fic for the first time, it's important that you read the previous books in this series (Hazard's Sorrow, A Time to Heal, Less than Human, and Twists of Fate: Prelude to Revival) in order to know what's going on, and what's being referenced. With that said, I present to you the latest story in the Tamers Requiem series.

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.

* * *

"Well? What do you think?"

Steel shone in the light of day as a metallic, reptilian tail swished through the air.

"Think of what?"

A hand, this one completely human gestured out in front of its owner, sweeping out over the vast expanse of the city that lay before the pair. Its owner didn't look behind him at his partner to provide an answer to his question, and instead allowed the motion of his hand to speak meaningfully for him instead. The steel dragon looked away from the human and out over the city. Crimson glowed in his eyes briefly before he snorted.

"Hardly impressive."

"No?" The human brought his hand to rest on his knee as he leaned back. "Well, you've seen many strange things, so I suppose that's inured you to sights like these. 'You've seen one wonder, you've seen them all.'"

The dragon looked at the human incredulously. As though sensing his surprise, the human chortled.

"I often wonder what humans think about their gods. All the information I've acquired, they see them as being large and grossly powerful…always on a completely different level than they themselves are. Workings of vast, powerful forces, or the generators themselves of those very forces. Suppose they come across a god and discover that they're no different?"

"Their many myths describe them as being as human," said the steel dragon. "Powerful, sometimes immortal, but with appetites like they do."

"Yes. So the stories say," said the human dismissively. "But I'm talking about actually meeting one in the flesh and having it documented. Not some story that can be passed down."

"What does any of this have to do with what I think about this city, Prometheus?" The steel dragon narrowed his eyes at his partner.

"Maelstrom, Maelstrom, Maelstrom…" Prometheus said, shaking his head at the metallic dragon. "I was looking at it from the point of view from you digimon. I've traveled the length of the digital world, and whenever I hear you talk about humans or the real world, it's always reverently. Well, except for the Southern Sovereign, but he's no longer capable of voicing his opinion on the matter. Yggdrasil's vaunted _Project-X _saw to that. But I digress. You've crossed claws with the lance of humans. You've seen what they are like on the inside. Can you honestly tell me that they are worth the veneration that you digimon heap on them?"

"I have never done so before. Nor has my master."

"Perhaps I'm asking the wrong person then," said Prometheus. "I forgot that you are merely the projection of a digimon's will given solid form. For that matter, the digimon you were birthed from is an existence far greater than the typical digimon. Angel types are like that. Perhaps GranDracmon even more so. After all, did he not discover the Death-X evolution long before Yggdrasil…?"

"Prometheus…"

"Hmmm…yes. Sorry. I do go on, don't I?" Prometheus rubbed the back of his head, all the while laughing at himself. "But this is what I find amazing about humans." His expression softened as his laughter pattered off. He looked out over the city thoughtfully. "They are nothing at all like us."

"No," said Maelstrom. "They are not. They are weak."

"And they fight everyday against their weaknesses. Some fail. Some," Prometheus gestured towards the city once more with a flick of his finger, "build cities like these in open defiance. A modern day Babylon that stretches towards the heavens. It's not immortality by any means, but they do go under screaming and clawing, for good or ill. One road or another, they can be so much more."

Maelstrom's eyes gleamed as Prometheus got to his feet and stretched. Knuckling his back, he made satisfied sounds as his bones popped.

"But that's why we're here," Prometheus continued, rotating one arm. "Crossroad time. A chance meeting of ships in the night, and suddenly the whole game changes. Time to throw the monkey wrench into the works and shake things up because like it or not, things need to change."

"Are you done with your self-monologue?" asked Maelstrom, flexing his claws in annoyance.

"Yep," Prometheus nodded. "Time to get back to work."

Violet, flame patterns crossed his arms, and with a flick of his wrist, the duo disappeared as the sun finished rising over the mountainous buildings of Shinjuku, Japan.

* * *

**Tamers Requiem, Book 4: Revival**

**A Digimon Tamers story by Crazyeight**

**Chapter: 1- Shuffling the Deck

* * *

**

"Ouch…"

Takato Matsuki rubbed the small of his back as he rolled onto his knees. In front of him, a red-haired girl of approximately sixteen years of age stretched, patiently waiting for him to get back onto his feet.

"You know," said Takato as he stood up. "You don't have to be so rough about this." The pain in his back was easing off now. He took a moment to note that after all this time the landings had finally started to get less painful.

_I'm not sure if that's just because I'm used to it, or she's trying to be easier about it…_

The girl looked up, and the corners of her mouth tugged at her lips, trying to force them into a smile. She resisted, but mostly failed. This was perhaps one of the very few defeats that she ever allowed life to get out of her.

"Tough," Rika replied, violet eyes sparkling as she leaned to the side to stretch her right leg. "If you didn't want to be kissing dirt so much, then you shouldn't have taken me up on my offer. Besides, it's not my fault that you have problems with fighting girls."

Takato sighed and hung his head. She did have a point, as much as he hated to admit it. He was just not fond of being rough with girls, even if he was sparring with them for practice. He just didn't seem to have it in him, no matter how many times his back hit ground or a mat. When he was younger, he had less difficulty with it despite his many qualms about it from the start, but as he grew he became increasingly self-conscious about it in ways that went beyond just simple personal morals.

Takato's crimson eyes brushed over Rika's figure. Her black sweat pants and white and turquoise sleeved T-shirt framed her quite nicely, showing just how much she had 'filled out' over the course of the three and a half years from when they first met. His eyes paused on her chest, and automatically he froze.

'_Bread dou…'_ Takato thought before he could stop himself. _…Doh! Terriermon!_

Stiffening sharply, his face blushed bright red and he quickly scrambled to his feet, taking great care to not look at Rika. As he dusted himself off, muttering to himself all the while, Rika raised an elegant eyebrow before chuckling, quickly catching what was going through his mind.

"I still need to bury that weenie rabbit for that," she said in amusement. "He made you even worse just because of that _one_ comment."

"Sorry," Takato replied, fidgeting. Rika sighed and shook her head, amazed, and not for the first time, at how quickly Takato could devolve into a babbling idiot whenever he became embarrassed.

_At least he's not as bad as he used to be when he was a kid,_ smiled Rika. _Though I have to say, that was one of his more charming qualities back then. Cute too._

Dismissing her rather girly thought, Rika relaxed her muscles and fell into a loose stance, signaling that she was ready to begin again. Takato quickly got the message and did likewise, though his movements were still a little bit stiff compared to hers. Well, that suited her just fine. She'd take any excuse to beat his aversion towards fighting girls out of him. They both knew that their lives might depend on it someday.

"Takaaatooo…" called a familiar voice from off to the side, causing Takato's head to turn in its direction. Seizing the opportunity, Rika dashed forward and approximately two seconds later, Takato was again on his back, coughing as the air all but left his lungs from the impact.

"Don't take your eyes off your opponent, Gogglehead," Rika chastised as she helped him up to his feet. "I thought Henry's teacher would have drilled that into your head by now."

"Well…he did say something like that…but maybe I just wasn't listening."

Shrugging, Rika walked over to her gym bag and dug out a pair of towels, tossing one to Takato and draping the other around her neck.

"Guess practice is over for the day. Same time tomorrow?"

Takato nodded. "Sure."

"Good. See you then." With that, Rika took off at a brisk pace, slinging her bag over her shoulder. Takato watched her go for a second, his eyes just barely catching the flickering figure of a golden furred, kitsune following closely from behind.

"Takato?" asked a crimson-scaled reptile drawing up next to him.

"Hey, Guilmon," said the teenager, turning towards his partner and closest friend in two worlds, a smile drawing on his face. "Don't tell me…you're hungry."

Guilmon shook his head exuberantly.

"Mm-mm. I was bored and I just wanted to see how you were doing. Renamon says that it's almost time for you to go to school anyway." Guilmon looked the boy over. "She beat you again, didn't she?"

"Am I that dirty?" laughed Takato. Guilmon laughed back.

"Not as much as you've been before. That's good, right?"

"Well, my teacher's won't give me as much trouble for coming to school disheveled…or at least _as_ disheveled. Did you have fun playing with Renamon?"

"She's very good at hiding. I only found her once today. And then I got stuck in a bush and had a bird's nest fall on my head…"

While Takato listened to his best friend regale him about his tales of happy-fun time the two set course towards home.

* * *

Rika made it back to her home in record time. She still had plenty of time before she had to report to her school, but she didn't want to waste a single second. As much as she enjoyed her early morning exercises with Takato, they had the tendency of nearly causing them both to run late as they became too caught up in it to notice time go by. As Rika quickly took off her clothes and switched into her school uniform, another smile tugged faintly at her lips. There _used_ to be a time when Takato ran consistently late to everything and she was the one always early.

"Something on your mind?" asked Renamon, phasing into view behind the young girl. Rika chuckled.

"Just thinking about how much Gogglehead and I seem to have switched places. How am I doing on time?"

"You have more than enough, as always. In spite of what you think, you are never late to class."

"Later than I'd like," replied Rika as she fixed her uniform and gave it a once over. She pursed her lips together, but she nodded in satisfaction all the same. Quickly locating her bag, she made sure that she had everything she needed and slung it over her shoulder.

"At least Takato has learned to keep up with you and get up on time," noted Renamon, her tone amused. Rika smirked.

"Henry said that was one of the benefits of training. I believe him on that." Exiting her room Rika wandered into the kitchen, her eyes staying sharply on the clock as she fixed herself some toast. She scowled a little as she always did in the mornings now. In spite of all the benefits that her training with Takato had given her, the loss of time to have some miso soup sometimes seemed too high of a cost for her.

_At least Takato makes up for it over the weekends…even if it is embarrassing when he does…_

Rika brushed the thought aside as the now warm, crisp bread popped out of the toaster. Buttering it up, she choked it down and brushed herself off to make sure that she didn't get any crumbs on her uniform.

_Class president will give me hell if I don't keep this thing clean…_

Not for the first time did Rika wonder about the pros and cons of uniforms, but as always she pushed it to the side, considering it not worth her time with the life that she led.

"Morning, Rika," came the voice of her mother, Rumiko as she sauntered into the kitchen, a tired expression on her face. "Up early, as always I see."

Rumiko offered her daughter a smile, and Rika returned it.

"Kicked Takato's butt again," she said devilishly. Rumiko laughed.

"That boy… Just when are the two of you going to get together? It's been three years…"

"Not this again," replied Rika, rolling her eyes in exasperation.

"Sorry," laughed Rumiko as she opened the fridge and began rummaging around for something to eat. "I only ask because you're my daughter. I do worry sometimes, and the two of you have been quite close for a while now."

Rika walked over to a cupboard and took out her mother's coffee. Rumiko gave her a grateful smile.

"Whether or not I get together with Takato is my choice, and I'll pick the time and place when we're both…ready for that step."

"Still hard?"

Rika felt a blush rise on her cheeks and she turned back towards the cupboard, looking for some of her grandmother's tea.

"You don't know _how_ hard," Rika admitted. "I've told about our link…"

"Yes. _Very_ romantic," Rumiko teased. Rika felt a bit irritated as her blush deepened in its intensity.

"More like embarrassing," Rika muttered under her breath. _Not to mention amazing that we were able to keep our friendship through it, especially after that weird dream that we…no!_

Once Rika was sure that she had her blushing under control, she turned around and let go a sigh.

"Let's just say that it can be difficult dealing with two sets of thoughts at the same time."

"Don't you have a link with Renamon?"

"Our link is similar," replied Renamon for Rika, appearing by the doorway. "However, Takato lacks not only discipline, but also the ability to control his own thoughts."

"He's better now though," admitted Rika quickly. "He picked up on it fast. His dreams aren't as wild as they used to be."

"Really?" asked Rumiko in an offhand manner as she prepared her coffee pot. "Well, boys will be boys I suppose…"

Rika felt her blush revive itself on her face.

"That's _not_ what I meant!"

"Oh?" asked Rumiko, raising a curious eyebrow at her daughter. "My…I never expected _that_ from Takato. And here I thought it was something a little more innocent. Boys will _indeed_ be boys I suppose…"

Rika stammered, realizing she had inadvertently stepped into an unexpected trap. Cursing quietly, she turned towards the clock to distract herself.

"Aw…_nuts!"_ she growled, all but dropping her grandmother's tea. "Renamon! We've got to go! See you when I get home, Mom. Say hi to Grandma for me."

"Will do," said Rumiko, waving goodbye to her daughter as she and her partner disappeared into thin air. She glanced over at the clock, noting that her daughter still had plenty of time to get to school.

_Having Renamon transport her seems a little…excessive._ Rumiko chuckled as her coffee pot signaled that it had finished its job. _But considering the conversation I suppose I can't blame her for wanting a quick escape. Ah…young love. I almost feel old…

* * *

_

"A little abrupt weren't you?" asked Renamon as she and Rika phased into view back in the confines of the park, a short distance away from where she and Takato had been training earlier. Rika shrugged.

"Any longer and I would have gone insane from all the pestering. I'm just glad that she's not as bad as I thought she'd be when she first found out and things started to settle down. She's not going on about how she was 'already dating when she was my age.'"

Renamon tilted one ear to the side as she listened to her partner's rather sarcastic tone, but chose not to comment on it. Puberty…it was such a strange thing to see, even after three and a half years of observing it. Even though the digivolution aspect of digimon life was an extreme form of growth, making the human change from childhood to adulthood a paltry thing by comparison, it was still surprising to see how much her partner and the other Tamers change over the course of the years while remaining, in some respects, the same.

_And not just physically,_ thought Renamon, _though that plays its role as well…_

Renamon sighed and shook her head mentally. "Well, she does worry about you, as you well know. I think part of that is because you've refused her offer to transfer schools to be with your friends."

Rika shrugged. "I care a lot about the others. But sometimes I need a place to be me. Kind of hard to believe that school has been that place for me, but there's no getting around it now. I can't always depend on the others to make new friends you know."

Renamon nodded approvingly, but before she could say anything else, the sound of Rika's blue-trimmed D-Arc emanating its electronic warning from her bag filled the air. Cursing under her breath, Rika dug her digivice out of her bag and activated the tracking program. Her eyes narrowed as the compass function swiveled around before finally settling on a direction.

"Looks like it's a big one. Perfect timing…"

"For you to blow off some steam, or for making you late for once?"

Rika rolled her eyes as she laughed. "Did anyone tell you that you're getting better at making jokes?"

* * *

Pink armor glinted in the sunlight as Crusadermon touched down on the porch of her partner, Ayaka Ito's home and slid the glass slide door that led into her bedroom open. Stepping inside, ducking her head to make sure that she didn't accidently hit the doorframe, the Royal Knight took in the sleeping form of her partner. Coppery hair lay lazily over her bedcovers, a content smile on her face as sunlight, now partially obscured by Crusadermon's form, fell over her. Crusadermon watched her for a moment before checking the time and walked on over. Reaching out, she promptly tore the girl's covers off, eliciting a squawk of surprise as she was jolted to full wakefulness.

"Hey! Wha—? _Crusadermon!"_

"It is time for you to go to school," the Royal Knight intoned dispassionately as she neatly folded up the covers and placed them on the edge of the bed. Ayaka sat up in her light purple pajamas, blinking blearily and covered her face with one arm to ward off the sunlight. She glanced over at the clock.

"I still have a whole 'nother hour!" she said, exasperatedly. "Ten more minutes! _Ten!"_

"During which it would become fifteen, then twenty, then thirty," Crusadermon replied as she routed through Ayaka's closet. Pulling out her school uniform, Crusadermon tossed it onto the bed. "Dress."

Ayaka was not quite so ready to surrender just yet.

_"Five_ more minutes." She held up one hand with all four fingers plus one thumb stretched out on display. _"Five."_

"I've heard it said that it's usually better to get up early. Stretching it out does not change your body chemistry. You'll be awake soon enough, Ayaka. And then you can start complaining about Kenta making you late."

"Ugh." Ayaka threw up her hands in disgust and got out of bed. "You're heartless."

"Of course I am. My title was the _Indifferent Warrior_ after all. Or did you forget that?"

"Kind of hard to," grumbled Ayaka. "I need a shower…"

"Your father is in there now."

"Huh? Aren't you just getting in?" Ayaka threw a glance over the open slide door. Crusadermon tapped the side of her helm.

"I could hear him singing all the way from the park. There is only one place where he does that. I have had enough time to pick up on his habits."

Ayaka groaned, but she had to admit that her partner was right. Three and a half years of partnership…someone would be bound to pick up on that sort of thing.

"Great… All the hot water's going to be used up so that means no shower. And on top of that I'm woken up by a drill sergeant digimon who used to be employed by a digital god… Definitely _not_ the way I wanted to start my day."

"Then perhaps you should get up sooner to avoid the pain."

"Completely missing my point, Crusadermon," said Ayaka as she decided to forgo sprucing herself up in any special way and quickly dressed in her high school uniform, a green trimmed version of the standard sailor uniform common to Japanese high schools. As soon as she finished sliding on her skirt, she went over to her nightstand and picked up a hair tie, wrapping it around her hair to form a simple, loose ponytail. She went over to her mirror to look herself over. Gone were the days of simple shorts, striped t-shirts, and pigtails.

_Not too fond of the skirt,_ she thought, picking at that particular article of clothing. _Not sure how this ponytail frames my face either…it just sort of disappears. Ugh…well, Kenta seemed to like it when I first wore it for gym class…_

Ayaka tilted her head to one side, watching her hair swish in that direction, not sure at all what her boyfriend of three years saw in it. Then again, this was Kenta she was talking about, and no one could figure out what she saw in him either. It had taken her a while as well, even after their 'first kiss' moment that Crusadermon herself had incidentally brought about.

"Pihpihpuh…"

Glancing away from her mirror, Ayaka's face bloomed into a smile as she saw MarineAngemon floating outside her balcony.

"Hey there, little guy," she said, rushing over to greet the tiny fairy. "How're you doing?"

"Puhpuhpuh," MarineAngemon replied, doing a cartwheel in the air. Ayaka smiled.

"That's good. Kenta got up early, I see. Is he…?"

"Puh." MarineAngemon nodded, smiling all the while.

"All right. Tell him I'll be down in a minute, and have him tell Mom not to pester him. Or better yet, you do it. He freaks out whenever she starts talking to him."

MarineAngemon nodded and flapping his tiny wings quickly flew down to join his partner. Ayaka watched him go, waving cutely at him as he went.

"You do realize," said Crusadermon after a moment, "that your mother has no capability of talking to him."

"I know. But I figure she'll be too caught up in him to bother with Kenta. The last thing that guy needs is something like a marriage question being brought up to give him a heart attack. Seriously, ever since he and I got together she's been itching to marry me off."

"I see…" Crusadermon paused as she thought something over. "…How do _you_ understand what MarineAngemon is saying, by the way?"

Ayaka laughed, blushed lightly, and stuck her tongue out at her partner.

"Not telling."

It was at that moment that Ayaka's pink and yellow colored digivice cried out in alarm.

* * *

"I've said it before, and I'll say it again," said Henry as he ran down the streets of Shinjuku. "Never a dull day around here."

"Wow Henry," chuckled a long eared, white and green colored, rabbit-dog digimon with one horn on his head hanging on tightly to the back of the half-Chinese boy's head by his tiny paws. "You are the _master_ of observation. Not to mention nostalgia. This is…what? The third time in two weeks? Gotta be a record. And this week is just getting started too…"

"Terriermon…" Henry rolled his eyes as his partner giggled. Henry couldn't help but smile.

"The more things change, the more they stay the same, isn't that right, Henry?" laughed a young girl racing next to him. She bore on her shoulders a digimon that was eerily similar to Terriermon, only with gray colored fur and three horns to his one. Henry scowled at her.

"Suzie…I thought I told you to go to school."

"Momentai, big brother," said Suzie cheerfully. A trickle of sweat rolled down her face as she strained to keep up with him. "Our…digivices say that it's a big one, so you'll need all the help that you can get, righ—whoa!" Suzie's pace tapered off a bit and she grabbed hold of her side.

"Are you all right, Suzie?" asked Henry, slowing to a stop next to her.

"Yeah, I'm fine…I just…got a cramp."

Henry frowned.

"Suzie…I think you should head to school. I'm in better shape then you are, and if you're caught out in the open and exhausted, you'll just end up getting yourself hurt. Just leave this to us, okay?"

"But Henry…"

"Suzie…"

Suzie bit the inside of her cheek as she pouted. She knew the tone that Henry was using all too well. He had used it often enough whenever she had driven him to the point of irritation, especially when they had been in the digital world the first time around. That had been hard on both of them, but it had been only recently that she realized how much harder it was for him. Still…she wanted to help!

_No getting around it when he uses that tone, though._

"…Fine," Suzie conceded, and Henry's harsh expression eased.

"That's a good girl," he said, patting her head. "Don't worry. We'll be okay."

"As okay as we'll ever be," muttered a certain long-eared digimon.

"Terriermon!"

"Don't worry Suzie. If you hear Henry screaming, you can swoop in and save the day!"

"You're really not helping," said Suzie unhappily. "All right. I'll go to school…but I want you to practice with me some more when you get home!"

"I…" Henry paused. He had a test in trigonometry tomorrow. Could he really spare the time? He was strapped for it as it was…

_Oh, who am I kidding?_

"Sure. Just for a bit."

"Good." With that, Suzie turned and began to head slowly off. Henry sighed.

_She clearly intends to take her time…_

The distant thud of an explosion reached his ears, and Henry pulled out his green trimmed D-Arc and a card from his pocket. The card quickly took on a blue sheen to it.

"Should have done this from the very start. Are you ready Terriermon?"

"It's about time!"

Sparks flew as Henry slashed the blue card through the slot of his digivice, invoking its power. Terriermon leapt into the air as an emerald sphere wrapped itself around him. Within it, his body broke apart and expanded, reconstructing itself as he spoke the words that completed his transformation.

**"Terriermon! Matrix Digivolve tooo…Rapidmon!"**

The sphere shattered, revealing the swift and powerful form of Terriermon's Ultimate level form. Landing on the ground, Rapidmon gestured towards his back.

"Hop on! We're going to cruise at warp speed and beat everyone to the fight! Then maybe I can finally get Renamon to sing me praises about how much I rock!"

"I wouldn't count on it," said Henry, clambering onto his partner's shoulder. With Rapidmon's help.

"Yeah, you're probably right. Knowing her, she'd just say I was just showing off. I don't care though. I've made it my life's mission to get her to compliment me at least once!"

"I thought it was your life's mission to make mine miserable."

"It is! This is just a rest stop along the way. Do you know how much you wear me out sometimes?"

Henry smirked. "A lot. By the way, that qualified as rude."

"Oooh…so you _do_ have a personality. I was wondering what Noriko saw in you after all these years…"

"Terriermon…"

"Yeah, yeah. Get to the fight. Hang on…"

With a quick jump, Rapidmon's jet engines kicked in, rocketing them into the sky.

* * *

* * *

Takato wiped his brow in relief as Growlmon reverse digivolved back to his Rookie form. Next to him, Kazu laughed and Rapidmon was coming in for a landing, the rocket launchers that made up his arms smoking from the engine exhaust of their primary armament. Lying unconscious on the ground, body distorting from the beating it had taken, was a massive, yet unconscious black scaled MasterTyrannomon.

"Well…that's a first," Takato chuckled. "I didn't think we'd be able to take him down without deleting him."

"Shows what you know, Chumley," grinned Kazu, clapping his friend on the back. "We are just that good…"

"Or maybe just that lucky," said Rika tersely, brushing herself off.

"Ahhh…c'mon, Rika. You're just saying that because this is the first time we managed to take down a digimon without deleting it."

"Exactly." Rika glanced up at the unconscious Ultimate, her eyes set in a hard expression. "This is our _first_ time. And it took us how many tries to work it out? I think we just got lucky, especially since Rapidmon caught him by surprise. We might not be so lucky the next time around."

"You really know how to spoil a mood," grumbled Kazu. "Can't you learn to relax and party once in a while? All we've got to do is wait for Yamaki and his bunch to activate their gateway gizmo and we can send this guy back to the digital world. I call it a win, and we even did it without breaking the streets too much."

"…Which you did last time, I might add."

"H-Hey! It's not my fault that Guardromon weighs nearly a metric ton! Besides, he was thrown, and last I checked, physics aren't exactly a fun thing to have around when you weigh that much and being thrown at the speed of a cruise missile."

"Wow. You're going Einstein on me? Will wonders never cease?"

Takato laughed as his friends continued their banter back and forth.

_The more things change, the more they stay the same,_ he thought to himself, rubbing one hand through his hair. As always, the adventure continued, ebbing and flowing with the passing of the seasons. Glancing up at the sky, Takato saw the familiar blue colored halo outline that signaled the activation of Hypnos' digital gate. He had seen it so many times during its initial testings. Would they one day use it to travel to the digital world? Takato wasn't sure, especially since the climate concerning digimon seemed to always remain uncertain, even in the case of official recognition of Tamers as a policing force for digimon and relations between the real and digital worlds. He hoped that one day they would be able go there again though. As harsh as it was, the digital world was far too amazing and beautiful for it to remain unexplored and left only to the imagination. It was the stuff his dreams were made of.

The universe for its part moved forward, either responding to the wishes in the Dreamer's heart, or already anticipating it.

The adventure continued…as always.

* * *

A/N: Welcome back to the world of Crazyeight and the Tamers Requiem series. It's been…a while since I wrote 'Twists of Fate: Prelude to Revival' with its hints of this story starting up. My apologies for the wait. My focus has been on two other fics 'Four Seasons' and 'The Dreamer', and although I intended to finish them before starting on this work, I felt the need to start something fresh and get to updating at a more regular pace over the course of spring break. I've got some ideas for this fic that have been on the burner for a while, and now that they seem to be more or less in order I'm interested in seeing where they'll go.

A few notes here on this story. Concerning Takato and Rika, their relationship, such as it is, will continue to undergo its evolution (some of which has already been touched upon in this chapter, albeit slightly). I also wanted to take a slightly different direction detail wise. In a lot of Rukato fics, Rika tends to be transferred into the same school as the Tamers, which often helps with the romance comedy, but I wanted to break away from that and have Rika continue to go to a separate school for the reasons she's outlined herself in the dialogue. But don't worry. There's going to be plenty of opportunity for romantic comedy between them, as has already been hinted at in the dialogue. They are after all, growing up, and with the way things are between them it's likely to be more intense than it would otherwise be.

Other things that I'm going to be working with…some comments in the last story, Less than Human pairing wise have prompted me to experiment a bit in that area, and it will be a part of the overall plot in this story, and give me an opportunity to develop a character who I felt became grossly overshadowed by another. Hopefully this will make up for that.

'Till next chapter then. :P

-Crazyeight

* * *

10


	2. The Ultimate Fighter

Disclaimer: I don't own Digmon.

Revival

Chapter: 2/ The Ultimate Fighter

A silver furred fox stood atop a sand dune, peering through a pair of binoculars. A wide, amazed smile on his face as his tail flicked back and forth.

_I never get tired of this thing,_ he thought to himself, blinking his eyes. _My eyesight was always pretty good before, but this…! Yamaki was right to lend me some equipment. This is helping my reconnaissance tremendously!_

Feeling a little bit embarrassed, he put down his binoculars and scratched the back of his head. His hand bumped into the long, bladed spear that he had tied to his back, and he frowned at it. Memories emerged but he dismissed them and replaced the binoculars in the knapsack at his side. Pulling out a data pad in its place, the fox began typing out a message.

_Surface Area of the digital world remains clear of digital anomalies. Presently no sign of digimon or any surface life. Proceeding to Surface Area Sector 8-12._

Hitting the send button, the kitsune digimon waited to make sure that the message was properly received before pocketing it and taking off at a brisk pace. As he ran, his eyes tracked the number of pink, energy beams that swept the desert. They were data streams. Mobile points where information could be transferred from one place to another as a result of human computers interacting with the digital world. They were largely confined to the barren surface layer of the digital world, and if someone was caught by them they would be transported randomly to another layer. It was practically impossible to figure out where one was going until they got there.

No one that is, except him.

His claws swept through the air in a series of sharp, swift gestures, drawing light blue lines of energy. His ears tugged at the back of his skull as a data stream began to lurch towards him. He watched it as it drew closer, analyzing it before changing his direction to intercede with its course. The beam caught him a second later, and his vision of the world blurred, becoming obscured by the bright pink light before reforming. More desert landscape surrounded him, with only a few trees littering the landscape here and there. It was more cavernous and rocky compared to the more dune-covered sector that he had been in previously.

_More stable ground,_ thought the kitsune approvingly. The data pad beeped at him and he looked at it. _Oh. A message from Yamaki._

_Understood Urocyomon. Will rescan that area. Be on your guard. Scans indicate an unusual amount of activity in Surface Area Sector 8-12._

Urocyomon nodded to himself and typed in an affirmative before running through the data pad's map system that was directly uplinked to Hypnos.

_Hmmm…According to this, the trouble seems to be south by southwest as the Crowmon flies…er…I think. Great. Good thing Kuzuhamon isn't here. She'd tease me about how I can't use units of measurement without screwing them up._

Pocketing the device, Urocyomon scanned the skyline, finding the sun and checking it against what he knew about human directions. He paused for a moment. Sun. That was something new to the digital world, at least in the Southern Quadrant.

_My teacher Gyōjamon always told me that there was a sun visible in the Eastern Quadrant. I wonder why that for so many years it's only starting to get around to showing itself now. The digital world has…become odd since I came back. But at least the Sand Liches are gone. That's one nightmare I could do without around here._

Urocyomon scratched one ear thoughtfully as he continued to look up. A second later he blinked and covered his eyes, staggering backwards a bit.

"Whoa…that's right. Don't look up directly at the sun like that. Jeesh… Thank you Calumon for letting me know about that."

Blinking the spots out of his digital eyes, Urocyomon took another moment to check his position and then ran off in the direction of the sector he was investigating. He was a bit far off to be able to see it, but that was how he wanted it. The further off he was, the more time he would have to prepare for any unpleasant surprises. Although the monstrous Sand Liches, undead leftovers from the D-Reaper's rampage, were long gone, the digital world was full of many dangers. At the Rookie level and without a human partner to digivolve him, he would need every advantage he could get if he needed to fight or just plain run.

_And with my strength level, running is by far the best idea I can come up with. Gyōjamon may have given me his spear before he died, but that doesn't mean I know how to use it. _His thoughts paused on his long-gone teacher before refocusing on the terrain around him. _Can't let myself get distracted,_ he thought as he soared over a particularly deep chasm. _All it takes is one false move and…boom. Digital dust and then Yamaki is left wondering what happened to his scout._

As if to confirm his thoughts he found himself falling just short of the cliff that was his intended landing target. His eyes widened in shock and with only a split second to consider his options he reached over his shoulder and unloosened the harness that tied his spear to his back. Whipping it free he stabbed its blade directly into the hard rock, the razor sharp edge imbedding itself with ease and bringing him to a sudden halt.

"Gah!" Urocyomon let out a weak cry as his arm protested against his sudden stop. Small bits of sparkling data flew from his mouth as he rested for a moment. _Bit my tongue…_

"Well…that confirms it," he mused, staring down at the very far bottom below him. "Kuzuhamon always said I'd come to a bad end if I didn't pay attention to my surroundings. Guess I'll have to pay attention to her the next time I visit her…and…leave out this unfortunate incident as well." Shaking his head ruefully, Urocyomon pulled himself up and flipped onto his spear, balancing on it precariously before leaping onto the cliff, whereupon after making sure he was secure, retrieved his spear and retied it to his back. After checking his bag to make sure he hadn't dropped anything he scanned his surroundings.

"Still a lot of rock around here. Nothing but rock…sand…and wind." As though in response, a gust of wind blew across his body, playing with his silver fur. "See?" he said to no one in particular. Running a paw over his head, he began walking. "This is so dull… Yamaki said that there was something going on in the surface area of the digital world, but I haven't seen squat! I've gone through at least eight sub-quadrants and even more sectors than I have claws. I thought I'd at least see a Kuwagamon, or maybe Jijimon and Babamon having one of their infamous rows. Ugh. I ought to remind myself why I thought scouting for the humans would be a good idea."

Tapping his chin, Urocyomon thought back to his life before he met the Tamers at the temple governed by the Seer Council and peopled by the vast multitude of Renamon. The fur around the base of his tail began to poof out in response.

"That's right," he scowled while trying to smooth out his fur. "Moving on."

Urocyomon's ears perked as they caught wind of a noise. Furrowing his brow he again scanned his surroundings, listening carefully. _Had I…?_ Yes. He had heard something. It sounded like a yelp, and it was quickly followed up by a series of what was decidedly complaining. It was difficult to hear, but given his own experiences he was comfortable enough to lay down a bet that someone was complaining about something. He wondered if that was the source of activity that Yamaki had mentioned.

_Probably not. He said an 'unusual amount of activity'. Digimon fighting doesn't really count unless they're Ultimate and above. Still…could be worth a look. Besides, they might know something._

The idea that whoever he heard could end up turning on him crossed his mind, but as there was nothing gained by never venturing, Urocyomon took off, leaping across the pitted landscape until he finally came across the source of the noise. There appeared to be something of a fight going on. An Ogremon amidst a group of Goblimon to be more precise. One Goblimon was down on the ground in front of two figures standing in front of a group of Yokomon protectively. One of the duo was clearly an Agumon, and the Ogremon was swinging its club through the air, getting ready to attack…

Urocyomon drew to a halt as his eyes widened in shock.

_No way… Is that…?_ Pulling out his binoculars, Urocyomon peered through them to make sure. At this range, his eyesight was excellent enough to tell individual digimon species, but he had to double check to make sure that it wasn't a trick of the sun. Urocyomon swallowed anxiously as he looked through them, glanced away, and then double-checked. _It is. I don't believe it. This should be impossible but…here it is. _Urocyomon looked up again from his binoculars, his gold colored eyes shining brightly in the sun.

_There's a human down there.

* * *

_

Reddish-brown hair blew in front of the human's face as he cracked his knuckles. A grin born of the utmost confidence rose on his face as his yellow eyes met those of the Ogremon standing before him.

"Sorry," he said to the Ogremon, "but I can't let you just have your way with these defenseless Yokomon over there." The young man indicated the diminutive, pink digimon behind him with a toss of his thumb over his shoulder. "Is that anyway to act anyway? Strong guys shouldn't pick on anyone weaker than themselves. What's the point?"

"Well Boss," said the rather large Agumon by his side. His wrists were adorned with red bracers. "I guess that must mean that he's weaker than the Yokomon. Why else would he be trying to pick a fight with them?"

"Back off!" roared one of the Goblimon, swinging its club menacingly at the human and Agumon. "This here is _our_ turf and these shrimps barged in on it! We can't let them go thinking they can just walk anywhere and not pay for it!"

"Yeah?" asked the human, smirking at the group. "Is that so? Then I guess I can't let you go thinking you can trash whoever you feel like, because when Marcus Damon is policing the digital world, the law is the law. No one gets hurt on my watch unless you're fighting _me!"_

The Ogremon narrowed his eyes and began to chuckle.

"Really. Care to put your fists where your mouth is?"

"Don't mind if I do! Bring it on!"

With a roar, the Ogremon charged towards Marcus Damon, swinging his bone club in a wide arc before bringing it slamming down. Marcus didn't at all bat an eye at its approach, instead bringing up his fist to block it. Orange flame-like energy wrapped itself around his fist as Ogremon's cudgel slammed into it. The flame flared briefly before the cudgel broke in two. Ogremon stared on in shock and amazement as the broken shards of his weapon fell upon the rocky ground.

"W-Wha…?" he began as Marcus looked over at the Agumon next to him.

"You ready, Agumon?"

"Yeah!"

Whipping out a rectangular object, Marcus brought his hand against its back, allowing the orange flame energy to engulf it. His triumphant smile grew as he shouted the words that sealed the Ogremon's fate.

"DNA…_Charge!"_

A sphere of energy materialized around Agumon and increased in size. From within the sphere, Agumon warped and changed as energy ran the length of his body. The orange of his scales deepened, and his body becoming more toned and muscular. His tail lengthened, becoming more pronounced, and a bony head crest tipped by one large horn sprouted upwards. The sphere shattered as he spoke the words that all digimon knew completed such transformations.

**"Agumon! Digivolve tooo…GeoGreymon!"**

Ogremon and Goblimon alike fell back as the newly evolved Champion towered over them. Still smirking beneath his greatly enlarged partner, Marcus Damon dropped into a fighting stance and bared his fists.

_"It's fightin' time again!"

* * *

_

_ Holy Sovereign…_

Those were the thoughts that passed through Urocyomon's dazed mind as he took in the fight scene that now erupted. The human, Marcus Damon unless his ears misheard what they picked up on, waded into the pile of virus digimon with the GeoGreymon, fighting against the Goblimon while the larger dinosaur manhandled the Ogremon. In spite of the odds arrayed against them, the battle was very much one-sided in their favor. The Goblimon barely represented a challenge as Marcus' body flared with bright orange energy with each and every blow he rained upon his opponents. The Ogremon, now bereft of his primary weapon, barely fared any better against the GeoGreymon as it tore into him, and it was clear that the reptile was holding back for fear of harming the Yokomon who were still in the vicinity.

_Just what is going on here?_ Wondered Urocyomon, somewhat stunned by what he was seeing. _A human in the digital world? Well…it's not like that's something unheard of, but I could have sworn that all Tamers had been accounted for…unless a new one has shown up recently._ The silver furred kitsune tapped one claw on his chin as he observed the battle. _Weird. He's handling those Goblimon pretty easily. Humans…are generally too weak to combat digimon with such effectiveness. Well…they can be on par with a Rookie in terms of power but…he's got some shiny flame action going on with his fist._

Urocyomon scowled. Realizing that he wasn't getting anything done by just standing there and observing, he reached into his knapsack and pulled out his data pad. A few taps on its surface and he fired off a message to Hypnos, apprising them of the situation.

_I need to get a closer look at this…

* * *

_

A red headed woman pulled up her visor as the doors to the main Hypnos control room opened. She smiled as two familiar figures, a short haired, light brown haired woman, and a tall, blonde haired man with wire-rimmed glasses. As she watched, the man pushed up his glasses and nodded a greeting towards her…at least as much of a greeting as it could be with the scowl he had on his face.

"Hey Tally," she said as she started to lower the operation seats for her partner to get on. "Kuroda. Took your time coming back from lunch together, didn't you?"

"I don't know what you are insinuating, Riley," grumbled Kuroda as he went over to his post. Riley shot a look over at Tally, but she simply flashed her a grin.

_"He's embarrassed,"_ she whispered towards her fellow colleague.

"No I'm not," spoke up Kuroda, having heard her. Riley grinned. She knew that in spite of what he said, his actions were often quite the opposite. She still remembered the day that Tally broke the news to her, over Kuroda's protests no less, about their relationship. A simple promise of a cup of coffee after the mess that went down three years ago—the most exhausting one that Riley could remember since the incident with the D-Reaper—was what started it all. The story differed depending on who was doing the telling, but ultimately it ended the same way. Somehow, they both woke up in the same bed, completely naked after 'relaxing' (Kuroda's own word for it), and between the two only Tally had been perfectly happy with the situation.

_It took him some time to…adjust,_ smirked Riley as Tally climbed into the seat behind her and fired up her systems. _But at least they love each other. Each in their own way._

"So how was it?" she asked her friend as they rose back into the air, both of them typing rapidly on their controls. Tally giggled.

"He bought me dinner. He's also promised to get me a stuffed bear later."

"If it weren't for his personality I'd say that you two have an uncommonly normal relationship."

"Hey! His personality is fine!"

"Fine, fine. I'll leave you with that, but you've got to admit he's a little rough around the edges."

"You're hardly any better, you know," teased Tally. "Oh well. At least I'm no longer the third wheel in the group. Thank you lucky rabbit's foot! Hey, speaking of which, where's our Mr. Bossman?"

"He's having a meeting with the Chief of Cabinets and the Sponsors. He doesn't want to be disturbed unless the end of the world is approaching again."

"I wonder if we should be bothered by how easily we can joke about that."

"It's only happened three times…or was it four? I've lost count."

"I'll check the records after I get off duty," said Tally as she checked over the recent data entry logs. "Hmmm…we've got a new message from our little fox in the sky."

"Anything new?"

"Give me a second and I'll…um…wait. Hold on another second."

Riley raised an eyebrow at her friend, as did Kuroda from the pit below them.

"Two seconds now? What'd he run into?"

Tally didn't answer right away as she rescanned the message to make sure that she hadn't misinterpreted what she was reading. Finally she turned towards Riley, her lips pressed into one thin line.

_That doesn't look good,_ thought Riley. "What's going on?"

"Well," said Tally finally, "it's not the end of the world, but we're going to have to call Yamaki anyway. He's going to want to hear about this."

* * *

_"…And so," _began Eiichi Nakazawa, Chief of Cabinets in the Japanese government from his image projected on the screen, _"we formally recognize that the Tamers are a valuable asset to Hypnos and the Japanese government."_

_ "It's about time,"_ said a wire-thin man's image below Nakazawa. _"We've been in debate about this debacle for years now. Now these…children can at last be held accountable."_

_ "They're Japanese citizens,"_ shot a woman next to his. _"They could have been held accountable at any time. It was just that their services have been sufficient enough in protecting not just our country but the entire world that kept the government off their backs."_

_ "Not to mention that Yamaki had tried to keep their identities secret…"_

_ "Do I even need to remind you that you were against incorporating them into Hypnos operations? I seem to recall that you had other ideas about what should be done with them…"_

_ "That's enough!"_ declared Nakazawa's voice, silencing the bickering two. _"Now…Yamaki. I assume that you have everything set up to finish inducting our heroes into Hypnos?"_

"Yes," the blonde haired head of Hypnos nodded. _Finally, after all these years these fools have gotten some wisdom from my reports. Nakazawa at least is sensible, as is the woman, Juria Yoshikawa. She backed me during the rescue operation of Noriko Nakata even though she doesn't approve of digimon and their existence._

_ "There are however certain assurances that we require,"_ said Juria Yoshikawa, as though his thoughts had caused her to speak up in response to them. Yamaki nodded and picked up the folder on his desk.

"Yes. I've read over your 'compromise'. Have all Tamers undergo psychiatric evaluations before major missions should they be required. In short, a government liaison unconnected with Hypnos who keeps an eye on them and sends back all vital information to make sure that they are 'well adjusted and behaved'."

_"In short,"_ replied Nakazawa curtly, _"Yes. And this is not without justification Yamaki. Last I checked, your lead Tamer, Takato Matsuki, nearly caused a meltdown in the digital world. And then there is the infamous incident involving Jeri Katou. We have kept both incidents under wraps from the public, but all it takes is one public outburst to sway public opinion all the way towards the negative side."_

_ "Please understand, Yamaki,"_ said Juria. _"We are on your side. These past three years the digimon issue has been at a critical neutral point, but it's tipping dangerously towards the side that feels that digimon should be wiped off the face of the Earth and the digital world destroyed in order to preserve our world. If the Tamers can be shown as being fully capable of living up to the creed that they're reported as having…"_

"I'm well aware of this," interrupted Yamaki. "And I understand it. I won't interfere with it."

_"Of course you won't,"_ said the wire thin man with glasses. _"More to the point, you can't. That is also a part of our requirements for allowing the Tamers to join Hypnos."_

Yamaki's hand instinctively tightened around his lighter, but he said nothing in response to that. Not that he had a chance. The ringing of his cell phone caught his attention.

"Hang on," he said to the board members as he flicked open his cell phone. "I thought I ordered no interruptions."

_"Sorry sir,"_ said Riley on the other end. _"But Urocyomon sent us a message that you need to see. He's discovered a human in the digital world."

* * *

_

Urocyomon whistled as he finished typing in another message to Hypnos, this one describing in detail what he was witnessing. In very short order the human and the GeoGreymon had completely and utterly defeated the Goblimon and Ogremon.

_Just who is this guy?_ He wondered as he waited for Hypnos to send a return reply. They were taking an awfully long time… Could there be something wrong with the network? _Perfect timing if that's the case…_

It was at that moment that a massive shadow fell over Urocyomon, causing him to stiffen up and look up towards the sky.

_Awww…nuts…_ he thought as the shadow suddenly grew around him.

* * *

A/N: One of the problems with this series is just how much of the canonical stuff I'm trying to keep merged together. As most of you noticed, Frontier took place before the events of Tamers despite season four occurring after in order to accommodate Lucemon's plot in 'Hazard's Sorrow' and 'Less than Human', with the X-Evolution movie occurring at the same time as 'Less than Human' and Data Squad obviously occurring afterwards as it was hinted that the Royal Knight infiltration of DATS was going on around that time. With some of the other series, such as Digimon Next being brought in, I've had to come up with something of a working timeline and put together how Yggdrasil works in the whole multiverse theory while keeping him/her/it a single entity. I kind of figure that Yggdrasil is similar to the D-Reaper in that it has multiple bodies that it can spread itself out through, enabling it to multitask easily and set up multiple groups of Royal Knights and other agencies. This is a bit problematic however in the case of Sleipmon, who was mentioned as being part of the Royal Knight group in Less than Human, making him separate from the bunch that appears in Data Squad, though I don't think it would be too much of a stretch of the imagination that, after the betrayal of the last batch, a new group was created. Still, it does bother me a little. But I digress. Now I've incorporated Data Squad, set a short while after the events of said series, but not before the five year epilogue. Whether or not we see any of the other main characters from that series remains to be seen as the story develops, but for now we have Marcus Damon and Agumon to join in on the fun. Hope you all enjoyed this chapter, and see you next time.

-Crazyeight

* * *

6


	3. Heartfelt Wishes

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.

Revival

Chapter: 3/ Heartfelt Wishes

Angelic wings spread outwards as their owner stood atop a building overlooking the city of Shinjuku. He paused, allowing his wings to bathe in the sunlight before taking in a deep breath. With but a step, the angel dropped off the building, and although he didn't know it (but rightfully suspected, a number of people within the building let loose a cry of surprise at his drop. He didn't feel much concern however, continuing to let gravity assert its control over him for another second before bringing his wings close to his body and reorient himself so that he was facing downwards. The city streets were now alarmingly close, but still he didn't show any fear.

_Wait for it… Wait for it… __**Now!**_

His wings shot outwards, catching air currents and bringing him out of his dive. Adjusting his wings, he swerved away from a nearby building that threatened to bring his ascent to an abrupt and painful halt, bringing his course in line with the streets below. A few hands here and there pointed up at him, but for the most part Shinjuku, upon realizing what he was, resumed ignoring his presence. Once upon a time, the oddity of a human figure flying on graceful, swan wings would have been cause to take notice, but it was now such a common occurrence that few ever considered it worth mentioning unless explosions were involved.

In a surprisingly short amount of time, Shinjuku residents had surpassed the denizens of New York City, their counterpart in the United States, in being able to say that they had 'seen it all'. Very little surprised them anymore. As sad as they were to relinquish their title, New York newspapers were forced to admit that when a city was the primary location of a dimensional portal that regularly sent forth monsters of all shapes, sizes, and the ability to turn cities into decent sized craters, and its citizens didn't bat an eye, then they really _have_ seen it all.

Californians, for their part, praised the Shinjuku citizenry for their bravery, and life adjusted to the new order of things. Shinjuku was literally the gateway between two worlds. No one could dispute its title.

Lumemon coasted to a gentle soaring, sighing in relief as his digi-core ceased with its excitement over the maneuver.

"And here I thought you weren't allowed to unfurl your wings in public," came a voice from above him. Glancing upwards, Lumemon's storm-gray eyes met the shining, armored figure of Crusadermon. Her arms were folded across her chest, and in one hand she held a brown paper bag. Lumemon raised an eyebrow at her.

"And I didn't think you ran errands for your partner, what with the Royal Knight pride and everything."

"This is for me, Fallen One," Crusadermon replied tersely. "Just a little something I picked up from the Matsuki bakery."

"Guilmon Bread," Lumemon said flatly, not bothering to tell her to stop using her nickname for him. After three years of trying he had given up on that front, and simply let her do as she pleased. The fact that she was considerably stronger than he was had a lot to do with that.

"Yes," Crusadermon nodded. "Guilmon Bread. You should try it sometime. It is…quite good."

Lumemon rolled his eyes and flapped his wings slightly. He had tried it, and enjoyed it, but Crusadermon seemed to be of the opinion that he disregarded such things.

_Probably because I used to be Lucemon,_ he thought to himself. _Back then I wouldn't have stooped to such things._

"How was the fight?" he asked. "Noriko and I weren't able to get there in time."

Crusadermon shrugged. "A simple task. A MasterTyrannomon…a rather weak one at that. Probably newly evolved. We were easily able to subdue it and return it to the digital world. It would appear that Hypnos' new gateway system is a success."

"That's good to know. Perhaps now we can stop deleting digimon…maybe even stop fighting them all together. After all, it only takes a click of a button and then they're gone."

"I doubt it's that easy. Ayaka and I were at the last meeting when we were being filled in on it. It can only work when the digimon in question is at a low level or, if failing that, in a state of low power. Digimon have the ability to resist outside programs after all, or did you forget that is how we can resist attacks that otherwise cause severe damage to our surroundings?"

"I haven't forgotten. I was just…thinking optimistically."

"Better to think realistically. At any rate, you still haven't answered my question. I was of the opinion that your partner didn't want you with your wings out while you were outside."

"Oh, c'mon" complained Lumemon, huffing irritably. "This is Shinjuku! Digimon aren't exactly uncommon around here you know. Noriko's being unfair!"

"She also wants to protect you in case you need to hide. Digimon, I seem to recall, aren't well liked in some corners. It only takes one incident to shift the tables one way or the other."

"W-Well, even so. My restrictions are fewer in this city. It's when I'm in areas that we aren't normally in that I have to be more careful."

"I see." Crusadermon eyed Lumemon carefully as she kept pace with him. Lumemon glared at her, feeling a little irritated that she was following him while standing up vertically in the air, showing no problems with keeping up with him despite the increased wind resistance. "Then I suppose that you won't mind if I inform your partner of your doings?"

Lumemon tensed and Crusadermon chuckled at him.

"I thought so. School is going to be let out soon. You'd best hurry home, Fallen One."

"I will. I will. I just wanted to stretch my wings for a bit. They've been itching for sky all day today."

"Terriermon claims all fliers have Restless Wing Syndrome," nodded Crusadermon. "Preposterous. I don't have wings."

"The shoe still fits, though."

"Hmmm… Is that another one of those human sayings you've picked up? Well, whatever. I take it that since you're here, you have yet to talk to Noriko about your intentions?"

"Not really. I've been mostly thinking about the best way to phrase it. She'd probably go for it, but then again she might not. And even if she did, we'd probably have to run it by Hypnos and their bunch. I don't think they'd be too keen on the idea…"

"Be that as it may, if it's what you wish, then you can't beat around the bush for too long. Otherwise nothing will happen, and you will simply fly around wishing. I believe there's a human saying you may have missed. 'If wishes were horses, then peasants would ride.'"

With that, the Royal Knight disappeared in a blur of speed, causing Lumemon's feathers to ruffle slightly. He frowned at the space where she had been, once again trying to figure out their friendship, such as it was, before casting his gaze once more over the city.

_She's right,_ he thought. _I can't just sit here and just think about what I want. I do have to take action. But…it's the action that's the hard part._ Shaking his head, Lumemon reached a turn and took it, deciding that now was the best time to start heading back towards home. _Maybe I should take Terriermon's advice and just…momentai.

* * *

_

_ Momentai, momentai, momentai…_ the word resounded through Suzie's head as she tapped her pencil on her desk endlessly, both dancing to the same beat. Around her, some of her fellow students were giving her looks that expressed both alarm and annoyance. Up at the board, her teacher glanced in her direction, but otherwise continued with the lesson without breaking stride.

She could feel her partners gaze on her from the tree right outside the window. As hidden as Lopmon was, Suzie was always aware of where her partner was. They did not share the link that Rika and Renamon had, but she had spent enough time in Lopmon's company to be able to have something similar. No doubt she was worried, and she had every right to worry. They were partners, and partners _always_ worried about her. Lopmon spent the better half of their nearly four year partnership worrying about the young girl who had an extreme obsession with dressing her up in doll clothes and trying to get her to act less proper in front of others. Of course, Suzie was older now, ten and a half years old to be more precise, and those worries had shifted from childish antics to something else. Namely just that. Suzie was growing up.

Suzie wasn't happy, and her unhappiness was focused on her older brother and his refusal to let her participate in the day's battle. Despite numerous occasions where she had had to fend for herself, and even aided the Tamers in battle against their enemies, be it the D-Reaper, Parasimon, Royal Knights, or any other digimon or out-of-control program with an aim to destroy whatever was on their mind at any given week, she was still treated like a little kid that had to be protected. True, she was slightly younger than the age Takato, Rika, and her older brother had been when they first began being Tamers, but that did not change the fact that she had the experience needed to help defend the city. She could even evolve Lopmon to the Ultimate level for goodness' sake, and that was usually enough to handle most of the threats that came from the digital world. If not, she had her cards. She had become quite proficient in using them, thanks to the tutelage of both her brother, Rika, Ryo, and even Kazu of all people. She was no Digimon Queen, but she could hold her own during a match or a battle. No one disputed that.

Except that is, her own brother.

_Why does he keep doing that?_ she thought fiercely, continuing to tap her pencil on her desk. _Why does he keep treating me like some little kid? I can fight as well as anyone and he keeps pushing me off to the sidelines! I…_ Suzie paused in her tapping as she caught sight of her teacher glancing in her direction again. Bringing its tip down on her paper, she began to busy her hand with note taking. _Forgot that the teacher isn't too fond of nervous habits…_

Suzie continued like this for a few minutes before the harsh buzzing of her cell phone made her jump in her seat. Quickly pulling it out of her pocket, Suzie checked the teacher to make sure that she wasn't looking her way and flipped it open.

_Good think I had it set on vibrate,_ thought Suzie. _Otherwise I'd be stuck in detention. Now what's this…? A message from Hypnos? They don't usually send these out unless there's something big going on._

Suzie felt a flash of excitement along with a little bit of curiosity. If anything, this was one of the few things where Henry couldn't just push her to the sidelines. If Hypnos said 'yes', than he couldn't say no, and neither could their father. Granted, they weren't a part of the Hypnos structure, though Yamaki had been working steadily for three years to make that a reality, but in situations where their support was warranted they followed orders. Even Rika, though with her she would often push the envelope if she felt the situation needed it.

If anything else, the Digimon Queen was determined to not be led by any leash, even if she expressed an interest in working for the government organization.

_All Tamers are to report to Hypnos HQ for debriefing after school._

_-Riley_

Suzie raised an eyebrow. That was all the message said. No details were given. Hardly anything out of the ordinary, but Suzie had to admit to some disappointment for not having a ready-made excuse to ditch school early. Well, she supposed that she couldn't complain. She was going to go to Hypnos after all, and where there was Hypnos, there were missions.

_Now if only Ms. Asagi doesn't give us a whole lot of homework then I'd be set…_

"Now class, I want you to do pages 34 to 38. They're going to be on the test. And don't forget about your book report either…"

_Nuts…

* * *

_

Ryo Akiyama backed out of his message box once again, his brow furrowed in deep thought. He wondered what it was that Yamaki was calling everyone for, but soon brushed the thought aside.

_It doesn't exactly do me any good to wonder about something when I don't have all the facts. For all I know we're probably going to be sent back to the digital world because of some problem going on there. Urocyomon's been scouting the place for the past three years ever since it 'blew up'._

Ryo pocketed his cell phone, thinking about all the things that had gone on these past three years. The digital world hadn't exactly been the same the last time he went there to let Cyberdramon blow off some steam. None of them were the same…

_…Except for Cyberdramon. He's still as aggressive as ever. Always looking for a fight. At least he's been pretty calm lately… Well, 'calmer' anyway…_

"You know," came a familiar, giggling voice as a figure fell into step next to him, "if you keep frowning like that, your face will get stuck."

Ryo couldn't help but allow a grin to cross his features as he looked at the amber eyed, brown haired girl next to him.

"Hey, Jeri. Did you get the message?"

Jeri smiled and nodded, the amber beads that held her hair into two pigtails sparkling in the sunlight.

"I'll bet that Yamaki's finally going to make you all a part of Hypnos. I wouldn't miss it for the world."

_"Us_ don't you mean?" he asked, his grin relaxing into a small smile. "Takato and the others still think of you as a Tamer, you know. Even Yamaki."

"You got me there," Jeri laughed, playfully looping her arm into his. "Sorry. It's just…sometimes I get to thinking that without Leomon, I don't really count as a Tamer anymore."

"You know that's not true," replied Ryo, ignoring the fact that her arm was wrapped around his.

"I know. That's why I said 'sometimes'. It's not as though I haven't learned you know."

"I can believe that." Ryo thought back to how they became closer friends, remembering how she had offered him a listening ear and had been supportive of him despite all the secrets that he held close to his chest. The fact that she had moved to the same district as he following the devastating battles against the Royal Knights from three years ago served to strengthen their bond all the more, making them as close to 'next door neighbors' as they could be without actually being such.

_At least when compared to the others,_ Ryo thought. _Distance always causes problems for making friends, even if it's supposed to make the heart grow fonder._

"So," continued Jeri, squeezing his arm and bringing him out of his reverie. "I take it that you're going to have Cyberdramon fly you to Shinjuku?"

"That's the general idea," replied Ryo. "It's cheaper than paying for the train, and I don't have any money for it right now. I don't even have a commuters pass either."

"Mind if I come with?" Jeri beamed her amber eyes up at him, and Ryo chuckled.

"Better let your dad know," he said, pulling out his cell phone. Jeri squealed happily and snatched the phone from his hand in a way that reminded Ryo of a lion pouncing on its prey. For the briefest of moments he found himself a tad bit unnerved by the mental image before brushing it aside.

"Okay," said Jeri cheerfully a few minutes later as she snapped his phone closed. "Dad's not happy about my going to Hypnos, but he understands. He wants you to bring me back home by dinner time."

Ryo raised an eyebrow at that. He had been eavesdropping on her conversation, and he knew for a fact that the man most definitely did _not_ say that. He shrugged mentally though, knowing that since he would be heading in that direction anyway he might as well give her a lift. It was the courteous thing to do after all and they were close friends on top of that.

"What are friends for?" asked Ryo, smiling at the brown haired girl as they passed the gates of their school. "It'll be good to see the others again. I haven't seen them in a while."

"Wasn't there a bio-emergence today?"

"Yeah, but it was too far away for us to reach in time. The battle ended pretty quickly according to my digivice."

"Hmmm…well, at least we'll still be able to see everyone at Hypnos anyway. I wonder how Rika and Takato are doing…"

"Last I heard they were doing martial arts practice together."

"You silly," Jeri giggled. "That's not what I meant. I meant how _they_ are doing…"

_I guess you can't get any more subtle than that,_ thought Ryo, chuckling a little uneasily. "You wanna ask Wildcat or should I?"

"Mmm…I think I'll do that while you interrogate Takato. Rika would just get angry with you, and Takato…well…" Jeri let her words trail off as her expression softened. As she did so, Ryo noticed that her grip on his arm loosened. Putting a comforting smile on his face, Ryo brought his arm out of hers and placed his hand on her shoulder.

"Cheer up. Knowing those two I'm sure they're doing their best at embarrassing each other," joked Ryo. "Well, Takato anyway, but Rika doesn't call him a 'Gogglehead' for nothing."

Jeri smiled weakly and nodded, allowing a small laugh to escape her lips. "Right."

_It's not easy letting go of someone you love,_ thought Ryo as the two of them continued on in silence, the once easy-going, happy mood replaced by a more somber one. _Sometimes I can't help but wonder why Jeri gave up on him so easily._

But then he remembered the very thing that had caused him to take Jeri into his confidence when she offered it. She had a heart that was large.

_Sometimes though…it can be too large.

* * *

_

Dracmon was lounging on the couch in the living room of his Tamers home, calmly munched on his late afternoon snack as he flicked through the channels on the TV.

"Don't get crumbs on the couch," called a voice from the kitchen. He growled quietly to himself. His Tamers mother.

"Okay!" he called out over the din of the television set, hoping that would put her at ease and quiet her. He cursed quietly as he returned his attention back to the show he was watching. It wasn't anything particularly interesting frankly, but he didn't want to miss a thing even if he was being bored beyond all belief by it. Having something to do while being bored was, in his opinion, far better than having nothing to do.

_Three years of this,_ he thought as he took another bite of Guilmon bread and chewed thoughtfully, uncaring about the crumbs that hit the cushions regardless of the matriarch's warnings. _Three years of sitting and waiting for something to happen and for Miki to come home. The bio-emergences at least are showing up more lately, but sheesh! I'm getting bored out of my skull with this life. Escort girl to school and wait around. Or go home and wait around. At least here I have plenty to eat, but it's not like there's really a whole lot that I can do until she gets home. Shoulda just stuck around. Could have gotten into a fight with Terriermon, or have ol' fox face show me a thing or two about fighting…oh wait. She hangs out at a different school._

Dracmon finished gulping down the remainder of his bread and, faced with having nothing else to eat collapsed onto the cushions and sprawled as far as his tiny body would let him.

_Great. Now I've got nothing to occupy my hands with._ Dracmon made a disgusted sound. He was _so_ bored. He needed something to do…anything really as long as it didn't count as actual work. He was at the point where even Checkers would do…

_Remind me again why I let myself get talked into sticking around when I had the opportunity to leave it all behind?_

The sound of the door slamming caught his attention, and Dracmon sprung up and bounded over to it. As expected, the young girl that was his Tamer, Miki Nakajima was standing in the hallway, pulling her shoes off. Placing one hand on his hip, he assumed a displeased stance.

"It's about time that you got here," he said. "I was starting to worry!"

"If you were so worried then why didn't you show up to escort me?" asked Miki, brushing her hair out of her eyes. Although her hair had grown since puberty hit, it hadn't drifted anywhere close to her shoulders. Quite the contrary, it showed an odd gravitational attraction towards her eyes, something that frustrated the poor girl to no end. Dracmon shrugged.

"You know I can't tell time."

"Even though I've been teaching it to you for three years," mused Miki halfheartedly as she headed in the direction of her room, greeting her mother as she passed.

"Hey, what's gotten into you?" asked Dracmon as he followed her.

"Got a call from Hypnos. They want everyone to show up there for some reason."

"So? You usually like going down to Hypnos, don't ya?"

"Normally," said Miki as they stepped into her room and shut the door behind them. "But I've got a ton of homework tonight, not to mention a test to study for. I don't really have the time to spare for that kind of thing. You know I'm trying to get into high school, and to do that I have to pass the entrance exams."

"You humans are so weird. Why do you have to study and everything? Doesn't make much sense."

Miki raised an eyebrow at her partner as she rummaged through her dresser drawer for some fresh clothes. "Didn't you tell me once that you went to a school run by a Togemon?"

Dracmon waved her off as she set her clothes on her bed. "Yeah, but that was only in the Celestial Kingdom, and she only taught you until you were at the Rookie level permanently. After that you were on your own."

"I see," replied Miki as she unbuttoned her uniform and pulled it off. She showed no sign of caring that Dracmon was in the same room as her, having settled the issues of decency and privacy long ago. Grabbing a light pink T-shirt with a flower design on it, Miki slid it on and changed into a pair of light blue shorts. Adjusting it, Miki wandered over to her mirror and looked herself over, pausing for a minute to stick her chest out. She looked a little unhappy about it for some reason.

"You know…I still don't understand why you even do that."

"You just don't understand girls," grumbled Miki, relaxing her stance.

"Nope. Don't got 'em."

"Even though everything we've seem tells a completely different story, never mind what you and I biomerge into."

"It's not like I understand it either," replied Dracmon, shrugging his shoulders. "We're supposed to be genderless after all."

"Whatever," said Miki a little sourly. "Anyway, we've got to meet up with the others at the park before continuing on to Hypnos. Ayaka sent me a message while I was in class telling me that. Usual morning meeting place."

"Yippee Skippy. No one thought to do that first?"

_"Some_ of us have to go home to fetch our partners," scowled Miki, walking over to her partner to tap him on the forehead with one finger. "And I wanted to get a change of clothes anyway. Now come on. I'll buy you something to eat on the way there."

Dracmon's eyes brightened up considerably beneath his mask. "Okonomiyaki?"

Miki smiled at her partner as she grabbed a gray colored purse off her desk and checked its contents to make sure that she had everything she needed for the journey.

"Sure. I've got the yen to spare for that."

* * *

A/N: Not a whole lot going on in this chapter. Mainly the reintroduction of characters like Miki, Dracmon, Ryo, Jeri, and Lumemon, as well as hinting at some of the plots and subplots that will be surrounding them, but nothing that I'm going to give away too quickly. ;)

'Till next chapter.

-Crazyeight

* * *

7


	4. Unspoken

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.

Revival

Chapter: 4/ Unspoken

"The Tamers will be here soon," said Riley to Yamaki as the blonde haired head of Hypnos flipped through an open file on his desk. Riley glanced down at it curiously, raising a mental eyebrow.

_Why is he looking at my employee information?_

"Good," replied Yamaki, glancing up from the file briefly before returning to it. "Any further word from Urocyomon?"

"No sir," Riley shook her head. "He hasn't sent any new information since this morning. We're still reading the signal of his communication device, but it hasn't moved at all."

A low click filled the air as Yamaki flicked his lighter closed. "I take it Kuroda is already assuming the worst?"

"For once, no, sir. He's scanning the area and surrounding environs to make sure that we haven't missed anything after our initial scan, but so far it's not looking good. I think this is the first time he's taking a digimon vanishing hard."

Yamaki nodded. Neither of them were too surprised by this, as over the past three years the rather cynical operations technician had come to form a rapport with their silver furred kitsune scout. The two had logged hours of conversations that went back and forth from basic information about an area of the digital world to what they had for breakfast that morning. Some of it was surprisingly personal, which had given Yamaki cause to tell the two to keep their conversations as related to work as possible.

If anything, the two were as close to being partners without actually being partners. Riley couldn't help but wonder if it was because their method of communication removed the visual barriers that had made Kuroda so adversarial to digimon to begin with.

_He's still a bit rude to the Tamers' digimon,_ thought Riley.

"Riley," said Yamaki after a moment of silence between them. "How long have you been working here?"

The question caught Riley off guard, and she couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at her superior and lover. _How long have I been working at Hypnos? Seems like forever…_

"Going on almost eight years if you include my internship here," she replied.

"And during that time you've shown a great deal of experience with the technology here and how to operate it."

Riley nodded. She was almost as much of a genius at manipulating programs as any one of the Monster Makers, which was why she rose to the position of Chief Operator by the time she turned 25. It helped that she and Yamaki helped design some of the technology by then as well.

_In a way, it's pretty much what drew us together in the first place,_ she thought. She glanced back down at her open file. "A little early for employee evaluations," she remarked humorously, though no joking smile appeared on her face. "You still owe me a five year raise, too."

"Too much of our funding is directed into our technology to help with that," replied Yamaki. Riley scowled.

"Sir, is something going on that I need to know about?"

"I'm just considering the future, Riley." Yamaki shut the file and stood up. "How soon until the Tamers get here?"

"It shouldn't be long now. Most of them were going to stop off at home first before meeting up. Afterwards they would proceed directly here."

"Understood," nodded Yamaki. "Have them meet in the main meeting room." He paused and looked at her. "I want you there as well."

"Sir…forgive me for saying so, but you're kind of freaking me out."

Yamaki _hmmphed,_ clicking his lighter open and shut but once before offering Riley a small smile. Riley blinked, unprepared for it.

"Be sure to send them straight up," said Yamaki as he left his office. "See you all there."

"Uh…yes sir."

Riley watched him go for a second before shaking her head and leaving to go back to work. As odd as it was to wrap her mind around what went through her boss' mind at times, she had a job to do.

* * *

"Heeey! Henry!"

The half-Chinese Tamer looked away from the blacktop covered playground and towards the familiar voice. He smiled upon seeing Takato and Guilmon running towards him, hand and claw waving through the air.

"Hey, Takatomon! Guilmon!" called out Terriermon from atop the teen's head, waving a paw and ear simultaneously at the approaching duo. "How's it hanging?"

"Is he really using outdated slang?" asked Takato with a chuckle as he and Guilmon slowed down.

"He only does it to annoy me," laughed Henry. "He claims I'm missing out on all the finer aspects of teenager life."

"That's because you don't do anything!" cried Terriermon, crossing his tiny arms over his chest. "Everybody else does stuff like going out, staying up all hours of the night, trying to get free drinks without adult supervision…but not you. If it weren't for Noriko and the occasional digimon attack, you'd probably never leave your room!"

"Excuse me for trying to get into university," laughed Henry, tapping his knuckles on his partner's skull before turning to Takato with an apologetic look. "Sorry I had to miss our last meeting by the way. There wasn't any way that I could get out of my exams that time."

"Hey, don't worry about it, Henry," said Takato with an understanding smile on his face. "We've all been pretty busy lately."

Henry couldn't help but nod in agreement. The vast majority of them had been pretty busy with the regular load of schoolwork coupled with getting ready for the entrance exams that would decide their future. Failing or passing would determine whether or not any of them would get into high school or have to wait another year to take the entrance exam, and, by extension, enter college or university.

_Even Kazu's going all out, even though Rika thinks he should quit while he's ahead…jokingly of course._

Henry chuckled, remembering that even the Digimon Queen was showing concern for whether or not Kazu was able to join his friends.

"How's Kazu doing?" asked Henry.

"As well as can be, I guess," said Takato.

"Which is basically the same as saying 'terrible'," snickered Terriermon. Henry glowered up at his partner.

"Be a good digimon, Terriermon."

"Well, at least it's something different from the plain old 'Terriermon…'"

"Ohhh…but I like the plain old 'Terriermon'," whined Guilmon. "What's so bad about it?"

"Trying to keep the streak alive, huh boy?" chuckled Takato.

"No. I just like it when Terriermon replies with momlentai."

Takato blinked. "I think you mean 'momentai', buddy."

"After all these years he still doesn't get it right?" asked Terriermon. Guilmon shook his head and laughed.

"Nope! I do it because I think it's funny, and I think it's funny when Takato corrects me. It's just like it was in the old days."

Terriermon blinked, looking a tad bit disturbed by this acknowledgement. "Just when I think I had him figured out…"

"Everyone changes, Terriermon," said Henry.

"Except for one thing," said Guilmon happily. "No matter how much Takato changes, he'll still be him, and I'll still be me. And we'll _always _be together! Right, Takato?"

"Well, the two of you did beat death twice to prove it…"

"Terriermon…"

"What? Momentai! I was just saying…"

The four friends laughed aloud, rejoicing in the age-old game between Henry and his long-eared partner. As they did so, a familiar voice broke through their laughter.

"What's going on here?" teased Rika, stepping into view. "Are you two on a date?"

"Uh-hu-ha-wha…?" stammered Takato, turning bright red. "R-Rika!"

"Chill out, Gogglehead," she grinned stepping up to him and placing a companionable arm over his shoulder. "It's not like this is the first time I joked about that with you two."

"Yeah, but that was after we defeated the D-Reaper, remember?" asked Henry, laughing a little.

"Oh yeah," said Takato, remembering now. "That was after I discovered the portal and Yamaki covered it up! You almost got me then too…"

Rika closed her eyes and shook her head in bemusement. _"Almost?_ Takato, you thought I was serious then, and you just thought I was being serious _now._ Really, you've changed a lot over the years, but sometimes you're so much like your little kid self that it scares me. You really need to grow up a bit more," Rika tapped his the side of his head with one finger, "up here."

"And here I thought you wanted it to be 'down there'," mumbled Terriermon under his breath, earning him a baleful glare from Rika, who caught some of that. Henry rapped his knuckles against the side of his partner and added his own.

"Terriermon…"

"I'm just trying to lighten the mood. Sheesh. Momentai."

"Your idea of 'lightening the mood' isn't the same as everyone else's, Terriermon. I thought we established that already. By the way, you're not using my computer for the next week."

"Wha…! Hey! C'mon, Henry! That's not fair!"

"I'm really regretting letting you use my computer," grumbled Henry. "Maybe I should ask Mom to keep an eye on you when you use the family computer as well."

"If you know me at all, Henry, I'll find a way around her."

Henry sighed dejectedly. "Knowing you, you're probably right…"

"How nice that we have our very own resident pervertmon," said Rika sarcastically."

"Nice to know that those two never seem to change," laughed Takato.

"I could do with Pervertmon being less mouthy though. It'd make my life a whole less stressful." Rika grinned. "This almost feels like old times, back when it was just us. At least you gave up on the stupid flag idea."

"I-It was kind of silly, looking back on it," chuckled Takato, rubbing the back of his head. "But I haven't given up on the idea of having a team symbol. I mean, if Yamaki is ever allowed to officially let us be a part of Hypnos then we should have some kind of image that we can be identified by, like police officers."

"Well, your artwork has improved at any rate. I won't have to worry about you drawing me without a nose."

"You want him to draw you?" came the typical response from Terriermon, which was equally followed by that most predictable of responses from his partner.

"Terriermon!"

"Momentai!"

"Well, that was embarrassing," breathed Takato, blushing faintly. Rika chuckled and slugged him lightly in the shoulder.

"I'd watch your brain if I were you."

"Oh yeah!" exclaimed Terriermon as he dodged his partner's hands and tumbled down onto the ground, landing on his feet. "That's something that I've always been wondering about. Since you two are connected by that weird link, what happens when you go to sleep at night? I've heard that the mind can go in some strange directions, and I do remember that one time when you were fourteen when you had a hard time looking each other in the eye…"

"Terriermon…"

"…And then there was the time that Rika almost burst a blood vessel at Takato. I don't remember seeing her so angry before…except maybe for that time with IceDevimon…"

"Uh…Terriermon…"

"Huh?" Terriermon glanced over at Henry before the shadow of Rika's foot fell over him. Looking up he saw it hovering over him dangerously, speaking volumes just by its mere presence. Gulping audibly, Terriermon's ears wilted and he laughed nervously. "I get your point. Shutting up now."

"Good," said Rika, lowering her foot and detaching her arm from Takato's shoulder. Takato looked at her with a mixture of worry and embarrassment on his face, but in spite of what he picked up through their connection Rika did not step away from him. Instead, she folded her arms over her chest and remained rooted in her position. However, Takato knew better. Long experience had taught him that the very gesture of her crossing her arms spoke volumes of its own, making it a virtually impenetrable wall.

It was a gesture that Henry also recognized, as he looked for a way to break the proverbial ice that had cropped up in the conversation.

"So…um…Takato. How's your manga coming along?"

"Hm?" Takato blinked as he was taken out of his thought processes. "Oh! Right! I sketched a couple of pages in class today."

"And you weren't caught?" asked Rika pointedly, raising a skeptical eyebrow.

"Hey, give me some credit. I may not be a ninja like Renamon, but I can be sneaky."

"Perhaps you should focus on honing your mind," said Renamon, appearing behind him.

"…You know Renamon, it's a good thing that I'm getting used to you appearing behind me all the time now…"

"You jumped a little," teased the vulpine digimon, flipping up onto the playgrounds jungle gym off to the side.

"Ah! I did _not!"_

"Did," said Rika."

"Did," said Terriermon. Henry said nothing, but gave his friend a sympathetic smile.

"She does have a point though, Takato," said Rika, clearing her throat as she uncrossed her arms and placed her hands on her hips. "Your grades have been good, but you don't exactly test well."

"I've done fine throughout middle school…"

"Entry exams are _not_ like all those other exams! I got to those things before any of you." Rika turned a meaningful glare at the teen. "Remember how I skipped a grade? Also remember how completely wound up I was last year?"

"Yeah," said Guilmon. "You digivolved into an Angrymon and nearly ate everyone."

"Exa—wait. _Angrymon?"_

"That's what Kazu called you then…"

"I'm going to have to have a word with him," said Rika, her eyes taking on a dangerous sheen to them. Takato looked over at Henry.

"I think I'm going to get caught in the crossfire trying to keep the peace."

"That's our Takatomon," said Terriermon, shaking his head in deep respect for the teen. "Suicidal to a fault. My hat's off to you."

"But you don't wear a hat," observed Guilmon.

"Thank you for pointing that out, Guilmon…"

* * *

Cyberdramon flapped his wings as he drew closer to the familiar playground that was the Tamers traditional meeting place and began to descend. On his shoulders, he could feel Jeri and Ryo shift themselves and cling more tightly. He growled a little, signaling that everything would be all right and that they need not worry.

"Thanks big guy," chuckled Ryo, patting his partner. "Hang tight there, Jeri."

Jeri smiled at him and nodded, not a look of worry at all in her eyes. More precisely she was smiling. Turning towards the group that awaited them, Ryo couldn't help but laugh a little.

_Looks like Kazu did something to get her upset again,_ he thought as he saw her berating the hapless teen for what had to be the hundredth time.

* * *

"Sounds like Kazu's in trouble with Rika again," said Miki as she and Dracmon approached the playground. From next to her Dracmon shrugged his shoulders.

"So what else is new?" the diminutive demon asked. "That guy sometimes acts like he wants to get in trouble with her, what with the way he goes out of his way to get her angry."

Miki raised an eyebrow. "You don't think he likes her, do you?"

"Eh? What is it with you girls and going on about guys? That's all I ever hear about when you're hanging out with Ayaka and those non-Tamer friends of yours…"

"Oh, never mind," grumbled Miki as the group finally came into view. She gave them a once over to see who was around and her eyes lit up upon spying one particular person standing amongst them. "Ryo!" she exclaimed loudly, breaking into a run. Dracmon rolled his eyes beneath his mask as he continued at his regular pace, unwilling to match her fever-pitched run.

* * *

"And I'll tell you another thing…"

"C'mon Rika… Can't you just let it go? I mean, it was a year ago and…well…you were pretty rough around the edges then…"

"Dude, she's rough around the edges twenty-four seven. Where've you been for the past four years?"

Ryo and Jeri shared a laugh as they watched the exchange go back and forth. As worrying as it was, watching the two of them go at it as they often did, it was nothing short of entertaining.

_If anything else, it's nice to know that these two haven't changed much,_ thought Ryo.

"I'd better go give Takato a hand," said Jeri, wiping a tear from her eye as she tried to settle herself. "It looks like he's having a hard time over there."

"Need a hand?"

"I think I can handle Rika, but feel free to jump in if I call. You are the best at the last minute rescue after all, especially when it comes to damsels in distress."

Ryo laughed a little, not sure what to say about that, and let the girl go. He had no doubts as to Jeri's ability to settle the situation to everyone's satisfaction, as she had come to be quite the peacemaker amongst the group in addition to being the listening ear. Takato could match her, but was often leery about being too forceful except in the most extreme of situations where his commanding personality asserted itself with its full measure.

_Which is why Jeri is pretty good for peacetime negotiations,_ thought Ryo, smiling at the girl as she swiftly wove her magic amongst the group, leaving Kazu glaring at her, and Rika nodding and looking all around much more calm than she did when he first got here. _Looks like almost everyone's here now. We're only missing Kenta, Ayaka, the Imp Twins, Noriko, Suzie, and…_

"Ryo!"

_…Miki,_ finished Ryo, looking to the side just in time to see the girl draw to a halt next to him. He smiled and nodded in greeting.

"Hey."

"Hey, yourself. What'd I miss?"

"Just the usual Rika and Kazu spat," laughed Ryo. "Fortunately Jeri's playing peacemaker with them, so we should be in for a quiet walk to Hypnos. Hmmm…I think I see Ayaka and Kenta coming."

"Great!" chirped Miki a little too enthusiastically. She stood there for a moment, grinding the toe of one shoe into the dirt nervously. She could feel heat washing over her, making her body tremble a little. She glanced at Ryo out of the corner of one eye. "Ah…u-um…Ryo?"

"Hm?"

Miki bit her lip. She felt so nervous right now she could swear that her heart was ready to leap out of her throat. "…I-I was w-wondering…" Miki gulped. _Great. Now I sound like Takato when he was a kid! C'mon Miki! Focus girl! F-Focus… F…_

"What's this?" came the voice of Dracmon as he sauntered in between the two Tamers. "A gathering of delinquents? Fine by me, but none of you guys look the part."

_…uck._ Miki flushed red as she completed the thought in her mind, taken aback by how easily the word had wormed its way into her mind. Mega form notwithstanding, she tended to be rather proper with the use of her language, preferring not to use anything deemed offensive. That wasn't to say that she didn't swear when the situation called for it, especially where the heat of battle was concerned, it was more that she hated doing so. She felt that it made her sound…_course_ and unattractive.

"B-B-Beanie!" she scolded, taking the Rookie by surprise.

"What? What'd I do?"

A crimson gloved hand fell on his shoulder. Turning, Dracmon found himself eye to eye with one Impmon.

"You know…you really need to read the mood."

"Uh…what?" Dracmon raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah. You're supposed to wait until _after_ she finishes talking before you go and wreck havoc. Sheesh. You'd fail as an Impmon with that kind of attitude, you know that?"

* * *

* * *

Taeko Endo looked up from her desk to see a large group of humans and digimon enter through the main lobby. Most of the people within the lobby gave them wide birth, eying them with guarded expressions as though they half expected them to cut loose and start destroying the place from the ground up. Taeko sniffed disdainfully. Once she would have been like them, and had thanks to a certain biker digimon who badly frightened her during their first meeting, but she was now long used to the sight of this group trucking into Hypnos to meet with the higher ups. The larger digimon remained outside, taking off to the top of the roof so as to not disturb the public, but the smaller ones remained with their partners.

Picking up her phone, Taeko made a call to Riley Ootori, informing her that the Tamers had arrived before greeting the Tamers.

"Hello," greeted a light brown haired teen as he approached the desk. "We're here to see Yamaki."

"You don't have to be so formal about it, Takato," chuckled Kazu. "She already knows who we are."

"It's called courtesy, _Kazu,"_ scolded Ayaka from her spot next to Kenta. "Something you should probably learn if your little 'talk' with Rika means anything…"

Taeko focused on ignoring the argument that was fast brewing and kept her attention on Takato.

"Same place as usual," she smiled at him. "You know how to get there."

"Thanks."

With that, the group headed over to the elevators and headed up to their meeting with the Head of Hypnos.

* * *

The door clicked open and as the Tamers filed into their traditional meeting room, they found Yamaki already seated at the table, going over some reports with Riley standing next to him, folders held in one arm. Both greeted the Tamers with a nod and waited for everyone to be seated before beginning.

"Thank you all for coming," he began, before being interrupted by Kazu.

"So what's the big deal, Yamaki?" asked Kazu rather pointedly, slumping in his seat.

"If you'd just sit still and _listen…"_ began Ayaka before a look from Jeri silenced her. Likewise, a look from Takato was all it took to quiet Kazu. This was not the time or place.

"Sorry about that," said Takato, frowning at his friend and fellow Tamer. "Please continue."

"We have a number of things to go over, the first of which has to do with a recent report from Urocyomon."

"How's he doing?" asked Kenta.

"That is unknown at the present. At his last word he was witnessing a battle progressing in the sector he was exploring."

"Was he caught up in it?" asked Jeri worriedly.

"That is a possibility," admitted Yamaki. "However we cannot be certain. If he does not report in after twenty-four hours we can assume that something has happened to him. However, the twenty-four hour grace period has not ended as it has only been approximately six hours since our last communiqué with him. It could take him a while to find a safe location, and hang-ups due to interference from the digital world aren't uncommon. For the time being I believe that we should focus on the conflict he reported."

"As if fighting is a rare thing in the digital world," said Terriermon, earning him a quieting look from both his partner and Renamon. Turning, Henry voiced the groups unspoken question.

"Terriermon is right though. Fighting is the norm for the digital world, especially on the surface level. Was there anything specific about it that set it apart from the standard conflicts?"

"Yes," said Yamaki, nodding. "According to Urocyomon, a human was involved."

That did it. Now everyone was sitting up in their seats and giving their full attention.

"A human?" asked Takato. "You mean a Tamer like us?"

"At his last report he mentioned the human as actually _fighting_ the digimon alongside a digimon identified as a GeoGreymon." Yamaki looked back and forth between the Tamers to see no looks of recognition in their eyes.

_A new digimon?_ Yamaki wondered before continuing.

"In addition, his report mentioned the human as using some kind of energy around his fist in combination with some kind of device. He didn't give any specifications, but I believe that it's safe to assume that it's a digivice. The GeoGreymon apparently evolved shortly thereafter from a variation of an Agumon."

"Did he say what kind of Agumon?" asked Rika. "Like a Snow or BlackAgumon?"

"Or an Agumon Hakase?" chimed in Kazu. "What?" he asked, seeing the looks he garnered from the mention of the name. "I saw it on the digimon website like a mascot. Even had a name, stats, and everything…"

"Urocyomon did not give, perhaps he didn't have enough time, to go into too much detail about the digimon in question. His report mentioned a human, a possible digivice, and a method of activating digivolution that we haven't seen before."

"Start at the top and work your way down, huh?" said Impmon, tapping his chin thoughtfully. "And this human guy was fighting with digimon?"

"He did mention a physical involvement, yes. Again, beyond the use of a digivice, evolution, and identification that there was a human involved he did not give many details."

"You might want to t'ink about investing in a communicator that doesn't require you to write or write with a character limit."

Yamaki continued.

"That said, depending on how the next nineteen hours go, I want you all on standby for a trip to the digital world. At any rate, we will need to investigate the situation, but if Urocyomon is in trouble it will necessitate an early intervention and investigation."

"Will you have any further trouble getting permission about our involvement?" asked Takato, well aware of Hypnos' friction with the government and its sponsors concerning their involvement. They were after all not officially recognized as operating with Hypnos…

"None," replied Yamaki. "As of today, you are all now officially a part of Hypnos."

The room went dead quiet as the words sunk into each and every one of the humans and digimon in there.

"We're…we're a part of Hypnos now?" asked Kazu, his voice full of stunned disbelief. Yamaki's answering nod was all it took for him to push himself out of his chair and let loose a shout of delight. _"Yeeesss!_" Kazu pumped one fist into the air. "Best news I've had all day!"

"Congratulations," said Yamaki. "Now, about the terms of your admission. I would like your full attention for this, because it will affect how we plan our operation…"

* * *

A/N: For those who may not be aware, Japan's compulsory education extends from the first grade all the way to the equivalent of ninth grade. After that, continued education is voluntary for ages sixteen on up, though most students fresh out of middle school do continue to do so (approximately 94 percent if Wikipedia is to be believed). As such, getting into high school requires grueling entry exams whereupon a school won't take you if you fail, followed by an interview (so I've heard). If anyone has any further information regarding this, it is more than welcome.

Now, about the chapter. A lot of character stuff, some of which I feel ran a little long but was necessary to establish some subtext and various plots for the directions some of the characters will be going and some of the things that they'll be dealing with, especially in regards to their relationships with one another. More will be elaborated on as the story develops. As for Ai and Mako, I have not forgotten about them. Their current place in the story will also be mentioned as the story develops.

Until next chapter then. :P

-Crazyeight

* * *

9


	5. Return to Things Past

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.

Revival

Chapter: 5/ Return to Things Past

"Well…that went better than I expected," said Riley after the Tamers had left the meeting room. Yamaki adjusted his sunglasses and nodded.

"If anything, the timing couldn't be perfect. Their schools are approaching Golden Week, which will make their schedules easier to work with in case they need to go to the digital world."

"I just hope that this isn't the sort of thing that happens often," said Riley, glancing off in the direction the Tamers had went. "Aside from Ryo, things have been pretty quiet for them and they haven't had a reason to go to the digital world. If anything I would like to keep it that way for them until they graduate from high school. This is an important time for them, and you know how the school system can get."

"We work with what we have," said Yamaki. "However, with the Tamers now being an integral part of Hypnos, I think some thought should be given as to how this situation can be dealt with in the event when new Tamers arrive."

"Are you thinking of a separate education system?"

"Once the current group of Tamers graduates I don't think it will be as much of an issue, but we should have something ready for the future. The world started changing when the digital world was first discovered. We should be changing with it." Yamaki tapped one finger on his lighter thoughtfully. "Riley. I want you to work with the Tamers' schools. See what you can do to help their situation so that they don't fall behind. Supplementary lessons, patrol rotations—whatever you can do within the legal limits. We have a small group right now, and it's a large digital world out there. You know as well as I do how dangerous the situation is."

_Especially since we've been getting an increase in Wild Ones bio-emerging lately,_ thought Riley. A second later she frowned. "Isn't this…a little outside my duties as an Operations Manager?"

Yamaki flicked his lighter open with a single click.

"Consider this a test of your negotiation and public relations abilities. I'll be interested in seeing what you're capable of."

Riley pursed her lips together, uncertain as to what to make of this. It almost felt as though she were being demoted. The task seemed so…odd. This was the sort of job that one of the field agents would have taken care of, or Yamaki when he felt the need to take care of the situation himself. For someone like her, an Operations Manager whose sole purpose was to work with the technology Hypnos was equipped with…it seemed out of place.

"Is there a problem, Riley?" asked Yamaki, taking note of her silence. Riley stiffened a little, having been broken out of her thoughts by her pondering.

"No sir. I'll be sure to get right on it. I'll have one of the assistants brought in to help Tally and Kuroda."

"Excellent." Yamaki nodded and clicked his lighter closed. "Keep me posted."

"Yes sir."

* * *

"Man," said Kazu as the group made their way down the streets. "Another guy like us hanging out in the digital world and causing trouble? I don't know guys…this is starting to sound like the second season of Digimon all over again. What's next? The Dark Ocean?"

"That's not very funny," frowned Ryo. Kazu smiled apologetically at the Legendary Tamer.

"Sorry. Forgot for a second what we saw when we helped you out that one time. It gives me the hibi gibis to think that place could be real. Makes me wonder what else could be real out there…"

"It's a big universe, Kazu," said Ryo. Kazu glanced over at Ryo, a question already on his lips until he saw the look in the other teen's eyes. A second later, he clicked his mouth shut and folded his arms behind his head in contemplation.

"Well, I hope that the guy isn't causing any serious trouble…"

"I do believe picking a fight with a pack of digimon counts as 'causing trouble'," pointed out Kenta.

"Not necessarily," spoke up Guardromon. "For all we know he could have been defending something or someone."

"You've got a good point there, Guardromon," said Kazu, winking at his partner. "But not everyone is as noble as us you know. I mean, Rika didn't exactly start off looking to protect people and save the world."

Rika scowled at Kazu, but nodded nonetheless.

"As much as I hate to admit it, you've got a good point there—even if you're a little misguided yourself—we can't just think that this guy, whoever he is, has good intentions in mind while he's waltzing around the digital world. It's like you said: not everyone has good intentions."

"Yes," agreed Renamon, phasing into view next to her partner. "For all we know he may have been responsible for Urocyomon's lack of communication. The timing is certainly…interesting."

Takato frowned thoughtfully from his spot next to Rika. "Aren't we jumping to conclusions a little bit though? I mean, it's good that we should be on our guard, but I don't think we ought to assume this guy's a bad guy right off the bat. Sure, Urocyomon's disappearance is a bit odd, but that could be anything."

"He is right," agreed Henry, rubbing one hand on his chin thoughtfully. "We just don't have enough information to go on right now."

"So what are you two thinking?" asked Rika. "Give him the benefit of the doubt until we find out otherwise?"

"It's not a bad place to start. Like Takato said, we can't jump to conclusions until we have more information."

"Yeah," chirped Terriermon. "Otherwise you'd end up like Takato here! You know how he trips over his feet when he's not paying attention to where he's going…"

"Terriermon…" groaned Henry.

"He does have a good point though," laughed Kazu before stretching his arms out. "All right. That's enough for me. I'm going to call it a day. Takato, your folks gave me the day off so that I can deal with this meeting, so I'm going to go home and use it to do some studying. You think they're going to mind much?"

Takato shook his head, grinning at his friend. "Nah. They always give me some time off whenever an exam is coming up—though only on the basis that I actually do some studying, so I don't think you'll get a hard time for it. I think they see you as a second son or something now."

Kazu blinked, looking honestly taken aback by that. The moment was swiftly ruined however by the ever-constantly talking, long eared digimon known as Terriermon.

"…Not that that's saying much…"

"Terriermon!"

_"Just_ trying to keep the moment light, Henry. Momentai."

Shaking his head and sighing, Henry looked at his friends.

"Well, he's got the right idea anyway. Kazu that is, not Terriermon…"

"Hey!"

"…I'd better go get some studying in too. Yamaki wants us to report in tomorrow, so I'll see you then."

"Henry?" spoke up Noriko from behind him. "Um…would you like some company? I could help you study…"

"Um…"

"Oh, c'mon, Henry!" Suzie rolled her eyes in exasperation at her older brother. "Just let her come over. Lumemon can play with me so you won't have to worry about me bothering you."

"She's selling it pretty hard, Henry," piped in Terriermon from his spot on top of Henry's head. "I say go for it. At best, Noriko will make snacks for us—I mean _you._"

"Subtle as always, Terriermon." Henry smiled at Noriko and nodded. "As long as you don't mind."

"I don't mind. Lumemon?"

"Coming," the angel digimon replied, falling into step with the three humans. The Tamers watched them go for a moment, grinning.

"See that, Kenta?" asked Ayaka as she playfully slung an arm over her boyfriend's shoulder. "That's how things ought to be between us. How come you don't invite me over one of these days?"

Kenta squirmed uncomfortably within her embrace. "Um…it's…that's because…i-it's just…trust me…you wouldn't want to be there…"

"Oh?" Ayaka poked at his face with one finger, smirking at him. "Do tell, 'cause I'm dying to know…"

"He probably still has that life-size Kari poster hanging on his wall," muttered Kazu. Rika glared at him.

"Don't you have a home you've got to be going to?"

"Yeah, yeah…I'm takin' off now. See you Chumley!"

"Take it easy."

And with that, the group broke apart, Kazu and Guardromon going one way, Ayaka and Kenta going another, and Ryo and Jeri taking off into the sky via Cyberdramon. Even Impmon waved them dismissively before disappearing, and shortly thereafter Miki departed with a little bow. Within seconds, the group was reduced to just Takato, Rika, Guilmon, and Renamon. The vulpine digimon glanced at the trio for a moment before vanishing into thin air to give them something of privacy.

"Well…I guess it's just us now, huh?"

"Very observant, Takato," said Rika, tilting her head to one side to stretch her neck muscles. "I suppose that you're going to be heading home too?"

"Well, I don't have to be home right away, and I still have a bit more time before studying really needs to kick in."

"Mr. Kobayashi didn't give you too much homework I take it?"

"Hardly any. He wants us to enjoy the upcoming Golden Week. I think he's planning something for when we get back."

"That sounds about right." Rika relaxed her neck and took on a bored expression. "So, you got anything in mind?"

"Well…I was kind of thinking of a trip down to Akihabara…"

"Forget it. I don't think I want to deal with any Otaku stuff than what's necessary today. So unless you've got something you really need to get…"

"I was joking," said Takato, waving his hands in a placating manner. "Well…only half joking. There was a new release of digimon cards that I thought would be good to look at…"

Rika's eyes took on a new gleam to them. Digimon cards were, without a doubt, the one thing that continued to be of interest to her, and the fact that they continued to be printed, by order of the Japanese government no less due to the services of the Tamers, helped maintain such interest.

_Well…it's more like Hypnos bought out the production company and acquired the rights but that's another story altogether,_ thought Takato, remembering the debacle where an outcry of angry, frightened parents were threatening the digimon card game business. Yamaki, knowing the value that the cards had in aiding the Tamers, and the value that their continued production would have for newer, inexperienced Tamers, had gone in to ensure that the production company would not be put out of business. The designers were still working out a balance between militarization of the cards and keeping it a game—as hard as it was to believe given the nature of Taming and everything that came with it. Takato wondered if a balance had been struck or if a new gaming company had sprung up in an attempt to recapture the good old-fashioned way of having fun with digimon. It happened before…

"Hmmm…tempting," said Rika, "but I don't really feel like going anywhere. I don't suppose we could just head down to your place. It's been a while since I was last there, and I'd like something to eat."

"Your wish is my command," said Takato, giving the girl a flourishing bow. Rika gave him a look that was half between annoyance and amusement.

"Just get a move o…" Rika's words were abruptly cut off as, for a brief instant, her gaze became distant, as though listening to something that only she could hear. Frowning, she looked around, causing Takato to raise an eyebrow at her.

"Hey," he said, placing one hand on her wrist to get her attention. "Are you all right?"

"Huh?" Rika blinked and looked down at her wrist for what felt like an eternity before retracting it. "Yeah."

"You sure? I mean, you spaced out for a second there, and then you looked like you were looking for something…"

"It's nothing. I think I just let my end of the 'privacy screen' slip for a minute, that's all. No big deal."

"Oh." Takato tilted his head to one side. The 'privacy screen' was the nickname she had given their concentrated efforts to shield each other's thoughts and feelings from the other during the regular course of their lives. Takato furrowed his brow as he remembered the way Terriermon had lit into them about their link and the discomfort it sometimes provided. It served as a reminder that much about the reasons for the 'privacy screen' had been his fault…

"Don't go there, Takato…"

"Huh?" Takato blinked. "But I thought…"

"Just because we have our privacy screens up doesn't mean I don't know what you're thinking. I think after this long I would have picked up on what goes through your brain now." Rika folded her arms beneath her breasts and gave him a harsh look. "Don't tell me. Let me guess. 'It's my fault that we decided to work to keep our thoughts and feelings apart.'"

"W-Well…it is…"

_"I. Remember."_ Rika emphasized the words separately as her cheeks took on an enflamed discoloration to them. She glanced away, looking more than a little uncomfortable. "And…and it's not like I can really blame you for that. My mom and grandma said that's normal. I just…overreacted…"

"Well…it did happen at a bad time and…"

"It happened during her perio…"

"Guilmon!" Takato looked worriedly over at Rika before refocusing on his partner. "Remember? We agreed to say that she was just having a 'bad day'."

"You're such a prude, Takato," Rika sighed. "When are you going to learn that I'm _not_ going the kind of person you have to tip toe around?"

"Uh…" Takato thought for a moment before throwing out the only response that he could think of that was fitting. "…Terriermon?"

"Ugh…" Rika palmed her face and groaned. "This is just ridiculous. Forget it. I'm going home. And you can forget about talking to me tonight…"

"Ah! Rika…!"

"No buts, Gogglebrain!" Stepping forward she stabbed a finger into his chest, nearly pushing him backwards. _"You_ need to learn to grow up. When you go to bed tonight, ask yourself, are you fifteen or fi—?"

Rika was again cut off as Takato, acting on impulse this time, wrapped his arms around his hot haired friend and pulled her close to him. Rika's eyes widened in surprise as she found her chin resting on his shoulder, his brown hair tickling her face.

_Smells like fresh bread…_ she thought a split second before her face went bright red. _Stuuupiiid!!! Why are you even _noticing_ that?! You're supposed to be angry with him!_

Pulling her hands into tight fists, Rika cleared her throat.

"Takato?" she asked, her voice oddly disquieting and reproachful despite the fact that it was made in the most calmest of manner. "What are you doing?"

"Um…holding you until you calm down and come to my place like we were originally going to before we got into an argument?"

Rika chuckled a little, and Takato couldn't help but swallow nervously. He felt as though he were stepping into a bear trap and was realizing it too late to save himself.

"Over the ten words or less count I see. You do realize that you're hugging me in public right?"

"Didn't you just get done telling me that I'm a prude?"

"Okay…you asked for it…"

Rika reached her arms up, bringing her hands to rest on Takato's back. For an instant, Takato felt a smile draw across his face, feeling as though he were being put at ease by the gesture. He could sense the curtain that silenced their link drawing apart, bringing forth a comforting feeling of happiness and…

_No!_

Takato's eyes flew wide, but the realization struck him too late as Rika struck, jabbing her fingers into his sides, just below his ribcage. Takato's body tensed and he sprung away just in time. Smirking at him triumphanty, Rika blew on her fingers.

"I happen to know that you're ticklish by the way," she teased.

"How did you know…?" Takato began before realization again settled heavily on his shoulders. "Oh. Right."

"That's right Mr. Dreamer," Rika chortled. A second later her expression softened, and she walked up to him, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Nice to know that you can stand up and fight me every now and then…"

"Uh…gee…thanks…"

"Even if you totally suck at it," Rika finished, allowing a small laugh that could barely be called a giggle to escape her lips.

"Hey!"

"No 'hey' about it, Takato. Sixteen, twelve, or over a hundred, you know I can still beat you blindfolded."

"Rika…that was two years ago…"

"It was your bet. And you lost."

"You used the link! You cheated!"

Rika laughed and patted his shoulder. "Tell you what; let's go down to your place and we can forget all about how you did nothing but kiss dirt that da—."

The sound of two digivices blaring in alarm cut across the girl's words. Rika hesitated for a second, as though in disbelief at the timing of the event before the two of them pulled out their digivices.

"It's a big signal," said Takato, his tone serious. "It's at least as big as it was this morning."

Rika nodded. "We'd better go all out for this one. Take it down, hard and fast."

Takato nodded in agreement. "You ready?"

"Do you even need to ask? Renamon?"

The vulpine digimon materialized out of thin air next to her partner, signaling that she was ready for battle.

Two D-Arcs, one trimmed with gold and red, while the other was trimmed with blue rose into the air as the two Tamers shouted the words would propel them into battle.

_**"Biomerge activate!"

* * *

**_

A mist bloomed into existence and the front end of a building shattered completely. Sparkling light and shimmering air walked away from the broken building. The faint outline of a tall, dragon-like figure shifting around, as though checking its surroundings before taking on a more solid appearance. Color filled in its lines, revealing a creature of black and white scales, and a red scar standing out prominently on its chest. The creature snarled triumphantly and stomped towards the edge of the digital field.

"You will not keep me out," MasterTyrannomon snarled. "I will _not_ go back!"

"Sorry," came two voices speaking in unison. "But we can't allow that!"

MasterTyrannomon looked up to see two incoming figures. One was covered with white and red armor, with a flowing red cape behind him. In his left hand he bore an immense shield with a gold edge with runic digi-code inscribed into its surface, and a large, blue crystal sat in its center. In his right hand was what appeared to be the guard to a lance, only in place of the lance itself was a pointed column of fiery-blue energy. The digimon radiated strength and courage.

The other digimon stood in contrast to the armored, knight digimon. Lithe and graceful in her appearance, and protected by significantly less armor to allow for better movement. Her armor was stylish in addition to functional, with a face mask that greatly resembled a fox. In one gloved hand was a bronze vajra staff; its many rings clanked together in a manner that could be called 'rhythmic', and was almost hypnotic in their unified sound. She had all the appearance of a priestess and a warrior, and the thin set of her violet lips against an otherwise serene face gave MasterTyrannomon the impression that she had two faces and two hearts, but both were unified.

The two digimon moved easily together, as though they were the limbs of one creature rather than separate entities.

MasterTyrannomon snorted, recognizing the two.

"Gallantmon…Sakuyamon…_Tamers…_ You will not stop me. I will see to it that you won't."

"You're the same one as last time?" asked Sakuyamon, raising an eyebrow. MasterTyrannomon chuckled lowly and nodded, flexing his claws as he did so.

"And this time I'm here to stay."

Within her data sphere, Rika was incredulous. _How could this guy get back here so soon after we defeated him? He wasn't in the best of conditions last time we fought…_

"Can't you just go back through the portal?" asked Gallantmon, shifting his lance as he and Sakuyamon landed. "You won't have any more luck against us than you did the last time, and the others are on their way."

MasterTyrannomon flexed his muscular arms as a red aura surrounded his body.

"Last time you took me by surprise. This time will be different. I will not back down, and you will not send me back to the digital world. I will sooner die than go back to that place. _That_ I can promise you…"

The crimson aura that surrounded his body flared suddenly, and rearing back MasterTyrannomon let loose a torrential fireball from his maw.

**"Master Fire!"**

** "Talisman Sphere!"**

Slashing her staff to the side, Sakuyamon summoned a sphere of energy that easily deflected MasterTyrannomon's attack. The fireball splashed over the sphere, raining in every direction. With a breath of _Amethyst Wind,_ Sakuyamon sent out a flurry of crystal shards, flying out after the droplets of flames. They encircled the flames, swirling around like miniature tornadoes, quickly snuffing them out before they could do any serious damage. Nodding, Sakuyamon patted Gallantmon on his shoulder guard.

_"Your turn…"_

The words weren't spoken aloud, but they rang through Gallantmon's mind. Electricity crackled along his energy blade before he took aim and fired it at MasterTyrannomon.

**"Lightning Joust!"**

The bolt of lightning surged towards MasterTyrannomon, striking him full in the chest and downing him almost instantly. Data flew away from his body as he went down on one knee, his claws barely supporting his weight as he fought to stay up.

"I…I'm not…done yet…" the black scaled dinosaur gasped as he clutched his wound. **"Zen Recovery!"**

Data flew back to the gaping hole in his chest, infusing together. With a renewed burst of energy, MasterTyrannomon surged back to his full height.

"Well, I guess that explains how he recovered so quickly from our last fight," said Gallantmon in amazement. Sakuyamon nodded.

"That's not all he's capable of. _Look!"_

As they watched, embers began to seep from MasterTyrannomon's scales. Gallantmon's golden eyes widened in shock.

_"He's going to use his Hyper Heat Blast attack!"_ Takato exclaimed from within his data sphere. _"He's going to try and take out the entire city block! Maybe more!"_

"How do you know that?" asked Sakuyamon, but Gallantmon didn't answer. Instead he burst forward, racing past the shaman's protective barrier. Dismissing his lance, Gallantmon brought his shield to bear and slammed it into MasterTyrannomon's body, eliciting a grunt from his mouth. Despite his action, MasterTyrannomon's attack showed no sign of abating. Instead it continued to increase in intensity. Heat was boiling off his body in waves. Gallantmon could already feel his own shield beginning to heat up.

_"This isn't good,"_ said Takato as he saw the feint glow of orange beginning to appear on his side of the shield barrier. He could only guess as to how much worse it was on the other end. Tilting it a little towards him while continuing to press it against MasterTyrannomon, Gallantmon began to power up the crystal in his shield.

_"Takato! What are you doing?!"_

_ "No time to explain! You'll…uh…have to catch us on the way down."_

_ "Catch? Wait…__**Takato!"**_

**"Shield of the Just!"**

Gallantmon struggled with MasterTyrannomon's attempts to push him away as the swirling energies of his attack lanced out and detonated against the dinosaur's body. The impact launched MasterTyrannomon backwards while Gallantmon barely managed to brace himself against the blast. Wasting no time, the Royal Knight leapt into the air and dove under his adversary before launching the two of them into the air. Sakuyamon followed hotly in pursuit.

"Of all the stupid…" Sakuyamon growled as she quickly caught up to the duo. She bit her lip against the heat that she could feel coming off MasterTyrannomon. Molten embers were glowing intensely now, making him practically a miniature sun now. She could almost guess as to how much worse it was for Gallantmon.

_If the way his armor is heating up means anything,_ thought Rika, taking in the orange glow that was rapidly spreading down his arms and onto his chest plate. She could hear him saying something, but she couldn't quite tell what just yet. All that came through was MasterTyrannomon's response as she drew near.

"…And what is your response, Tamer? Because here's mine…**Hyper…Heat…"**

Sakuyamon grabbed hold of Gallantmon by his cape. The fabric was dissolving from the heat, but it held firm for the time being. Long enough anyway for her to yang her friend away from the digimon that was heading rapidly for a meltdown.

**"Talisman Spell!"** she shouted she slashed her staff to the side, once more reforming her shield. This time however the sphere expanded outwards, pushing against MasterTyrannomon's body and ripping him to shreds upon contact. MasterTyrannomon roared as he was cut off in mid attack, and quickly began to regroup.

**"Zen Reco—!"**

_"Oh no you don't,"_ said Rika firmly. _"Give it all you've got you two!"_

Energy swirled in Gallantmon's half-melted shield as he brought it to bear upon his target.

**"Shield…of the Just!"**

Once more a bolt of pure energy lanced outwards and struck to the core of MasterTyrannomon, cutting him off before he could even finish pronouncing his recovery technique. The remainder of MasterTyrannomon's body disintegrated into data particles. As he vanished, the heat began to taper off until nothing but cool air greeted the two biomerged Megas. MasterTyrannomon's disappearing body hung in the air for a moment, and he laughed at Gallantmon.

"I told you…dead or alive…I promised I would not go back to the digital world…"

With one final gust of wind, the dark scaled master fighter disappeared and his data floated away.

* * *

A/N: This chapter was supposed to have been completed and uploaded last night, but due to an unfortunate power outage and loss of Internet, I could not get MasterTyrannomon's abilities when I needed them, never mind uploading. My apologies for the delay.

Quite surprisingly, I ended up paying more focus on Takato and Rika in this chapter than I originally intended to. I'm still sorting out what their relationship is in the three plus years since Less than Human's timeline ended. The link that they made is, believe it or not, making it slightly more difficult due to its close nature. In a way, they both know what they want, but the knowing and dealing with their growing up at the same time has caused some problems for them, some of which will be detailed as their relationship grows and I tack down its direction.

Now, MasterTyrannomon's return will have some additional affects on Takato, though nothing extreme (more like food for thought) in addition to its other plot point which will likewise have an effect on the advancement of the plot. More on that as the story develops.

'Till next chapter then.

-Crazyeight

* * *

9


	6. Suzie's Troubled Heart: Part 1

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.

Revival

Chapter: 6/ Suzie's Troubled Heart: Part 1

A tall man wearing a smart business suit pushed his glasses up onto his nose as he looked the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building over. He did not look the least bit impressed by its size or appearance, instead appearing rather dismissive of it. Looking down at the watch on his arm he checked the time. It was eleven O'clock A.M. Tapping the face of the watch irritably, he made a _hmmphing_ sound and entered the building. Upon entering he quickly scanned the main lobby. He felt slightly better about it than he did about the outside. Government buildings he felt, and most buildings in general, worked too hard to appear impressive to the public. The inside worked against that. Although the lobby still projected a sense of authority, it did so in a manner that appeared to bring service to whoever entered it. "Come to us with your problems" it said, "and we'll do what we can from here on out to help solve it."

Occupants and visitors should always feel at ease was the designers golden rule.

Pushing his glasses onto his nose again, the man walked on over to the receptionists desk. She was talking to someone on the phone, but indicated that she saw him approaching with a nod of her head. Her response was crisp and her appearance spoke of nothing but efficiency.

_Taeko Endo,_ he thought, reading her identification card._ Not bad. _

Taeko Endo replaced her phone on the receiver and turned her attention to him now.

"Is there something that I can help you with?" she asked. The man nodded and pulled out his card.

"Yes, there is. My name is Itsuya Takahashi. I'm here to meet Mr. Yamaki."

"Oh, yes. The ten thirty appointment," she said, quickly typing on her keyboard to call up the relevant information. She glanced at him with a critical eye. "A little bit late, aren't you?"

Nodding, Itsuya quickly revised his opinion of the woman. Efficient, yes, but she spoke more than she had to. He scowled at her beneath his glasses.

"There was an unfortunate detour due to damage to the surrounding area. I had to find a new place to park."

"Such is the life of a city dealing with digimon," she replied, shrugging her shoulders. "It makes things inconvenient for just about everyone." She picked up the phone once again and pressed a button. "Hello? Mr. Yamaki? Yes. Mr. Itsuya Takahashi has arrived. Shall I send him up?" A beat. "Yes sir."

Hanging up once more, Taeko Endo returned her attention to Itsuya. "He'll be waiting for you upstairs. Do you know the way?"

"I know where we're supposed to be meeting," he replied, nodding to her. "Thank you." With that, Itsuya headed towards the elevator and called for it. Within mere moments, he was ascending the government building, fastidiously checking the time on his watch. Seconds later the door opened and he made his way towards the meeting room, whereupon opening the door he found Mitsuo Yamaki, already seated and waiting for him with a file sitting on the table.

"Mr. Takahashi," Yamaki greeted, rising and bowing respectfully. Itsuya did likewise. "How good of you to come. I trust that you had a safe trip?"

"It was fine, though taxing." Itsuya walked up to the table and set down the briefcase he had been carrying and began to unpack it. "There was some damage on some of the streets that I was forced to detour around…"

"Yes. We had a digimon attack yesterday."

"_A_ digimon attack? There were two locations…"

"It was the same digimon. He bio-emerged twice. Apparently he had a regeneration ability that we weren't aware of that enabled him to penetrate our defenses."

"My, my. Might not want to share that with the higher ups. I'm certain that it wouldn't sit well with them that the very program that was supposed to have upgraded itself these past few years has nothing to show for their efforts. They might think that you intentionally left Hypnos weakened in order to facilitate the incorporation of the Tamers group into your operations."

The two men shared a look for a moment before a small smile spread across Itsuya's lips.

"You are fortunate then to have me as your ally you old chain smoker."

Yamaki allowed himself a small smirk in return.

"And how did you manage to land this job?" asked Yamaki. "I would think that the sponsors would have requested someone who didn't have a personal relationship with me of any kind."

"They requested me because of that actually," Itsuya admitted. "They are hoping that you'll let your guard down around me. They also know that I don't let my personal relationships get in the way of my job."

"Yes. I've read your file."

"My file, huh?" Itsuya chuckled. "I would think that when you go to high school and university with someone a file is the _last_ thing that you need to know how they think. Oh well. It's been a few years since we last talked. Once I heard you entered this building you dropped off the face of the planet. How's Riley treating you?"

Yamaki raised an eyebrow at him, and Itsuya chuckled, pushing his glasses up onto his face and pulled out a file from his briefcase.

"I'll admit that I'm guilty of also looking at your file," he said, waving the file indicatively. "It's been far too long after all. Felt the need to get up to speed on you. Sorry if I disturb you. At any rate, rest assured that I don't have any intention of ruining you because digimon are breaking through your defenses. My job is primarily the mind, not your technology."

Yamaki sighed and shook his head. "Same old Itsuya. Nice to know some things don't change."

"Let's just try and remember your old paranoia, all right?" asked Itsuya sardonically, pushing up his glasses once again. "It was one of your high points at the University. Remember that my job is to evaluate you, your employees, and the Tamers specifically. I understand that the higher ups have become rather unhappy with the way that you operate things, especially in regards to the employment of the Tamers. Parliament and the sponsors may have given you their blessings, but we know that was because there is presently no known alternative. Itokawa messed up with his program, and Kuroda hasn't shown any interest in going into anything similar. There are some though that still cling to their ideas, particularly Itokawa's. They don't want children fighting…"

"I don't think any sane adult does," pointed out Yamaki.

"Point," agreed Itsuya with a nod. "But that doesn't change the fact that they're the only thing standing between planetary destruction nine times out of ten, am I correct? It's a serious blow to the pride of some individuals who have worked hard to make sure that we didn't have to depend on people who don't know the big picture…"

"The Tamers understand the big picture," said Yamaki, folding his arms across his chest.

"Which picture? The one that involves two worlds, or the political picture? Japan is stuck between two…no, _three_ nuclear giants. America, China, and Russia. And then there's North Korea, and who knows what _they'll_ do…" Itsuya sighed and took off his glasses, pulling out a handkerchief from his jacket's pocket to clean them. "Three giants and an X factor to throw the whole works into a mess, and China and the States are the worst of the bunch. They both want involvement. They've have been trying to get onto our shores ever since the D-Reaper incident. The government has been pacifying them by helping to organize an international organization similar to what you have set up here, but that's not going to be enough, not once they're completed. After all, Shinjuku is the center of all this hubbub…"

"You came quite well informed of the situation."

"Yes, well, it's nice to know that not all of my university experience went to waste after I switched to psychiatry."

"Why did you change out again?"

Itsuya shrugged indifferently. "I thought there was more money in psychiatry. Besides, I didn't like thinking about the kind of man I'd have to become just to get into the government. So I guess you could say that I went to helping people just to save my soul. How do you manage by the way? You seem a little more lighter than what I remember."

"Do you really have to ask?" chuckled Yamaki. Itsuya smirked.

"You always did have a soft spot for children, Yamaki. One day that's going to be your downfall." Satisfied with the state of his glasses now, Itsuya perched them back on the bridge of his nose and became business-like. "Now, I would like to get to work as soon as possible. I take it you have the files on the Tamers available for me? I couldn't get them when they asked for me, never mind tell me who they were…"

"I have my reasons for that, and the Chief of Cabinets has seen to it that my decision has been respected," said Yamaki. He pushed the file over to Itsuya. "But now that you're here…"

"Thank you," said Itsuya as he opened the file.

"I don't suppose that…"

"No worries," said Itsuya, already anticipating Yamaki's next words. "I always put patient confidentiality as the foremost of importance in my work. I won't breathe a word."

* * *

The next few hours passed with Itsuya now in his own office space, pouring over the file on the Tamers. It was relatively small, but he would be getting more soon courtesy of Amaya Abe who worked with all information and records. Once she had everything available and in print she would bring them to him. Itsuya knew he could have used a computer to sort it all out, but he very much preferred things with paper and without the use of such technology. He felt more at ease and that he had more time to think and about what he needed to do.

He turned over the file that contained the picture of Kazu Shiota, and his gaze fell upon a young girl of mixed ethnicity.

_Suzie Wong. Half Chinese…ten and a half years old. Partner, Lopmon. Hmmm…_

He tapped his fingers together and leaned his chin into them, contemplating the young girl.

_The age is right about there… Yes. I think she's where I should start.

* * *

_

Suzie made her way through the schoolyard, her face scrunched up in annoyance. Once more she was repeating Terriermon's mantra in her head, trying to relax and 'take it easy'. However, Terriermon's 'great words of wisdom' did little to help her feel better as frustration continued to beat away at her.

"Awww…" came a loud voice ahead of her. "Look at the little babe pining in the schoolyard. What's the matter, toots?"

Looking up, Suzie scowled as her eyes settled on the one and only…

"Impmon," she said, spying the diminutive digimon recoiling on the wall surrounding Shinjuku Elementary. "Here to pick up your partners?"

"You said it," smirked Impmon, picking himself up off the wall and hopping down. Children cried out in surprise and curiosity as he landed, and almost immediately began to swarm him.

"Hey!" he exclaimed as the children surged towards him. "Gimme some breathing room why dontcha?" To emphasize his point, he lit a small fire above one finger as though it were a match, and the children shied away from him instinctively. That didn't stop any of them from _ooing_ and _aahing_ at him.

A gray colored figure about Impmon's size landed behind him.

"Impmon…" came the warning voice of Lopmon. Impmon extinguished the flame and shook his head.

"Easy there, toots. You know that I wouldn't have hurt any of the munchkins. Just giving them a little warning." Turning to the crowd, Impmon looked them over. "You hear that? Don't just run up to strange digimon. Big or small. You never know if one of them is dangerous…" Focusing his energy a light surrounded him and expanded. A second later, the tall, leather clothed figure of Beelzemon stood towering over the children, causing some of them to back away in surprise. "Well…actually we're all pretty dangerous," Beelzemon amended. "Hey. Suzie. What's a good euphemism I can use? Or whatever it is that means the same thing that I just said, but is worded differently."

"How about if you try 'don't pet the dog until you know it's friendly?'" asked Suzie, folding her arms over her chest. Beelzemon nodded.

"Good enough." With that, light again swam over his body, and he shrank, returning to his original Impmon form. "You hear what she said? Smart advice!"

"Is that so?" came a snide sounding voice from off to the side. "You don't look so tough."

"Oh great," groaned Suzie in exasperation. "Atsuo…"

Impmon turned towards the source of the voice to find a ten year old boy around Suzie's size, arms folded over his chest and looking down at Impmon with a superior expression on his face. Impmon looked back, unimpressed at the boy's posturing.

"Well, maybe I don't impress you now," he said, "but apparently paying attention wasn't one of your strong points. I can not only be meaner, but I can look it too."

"I saw what you did!" the boy said defensively. "But you still don't look tough to me."

"Eh." Impmon shrugged. "Whatever. I don't have to impress you about anything. I've got my partners and that's all I need."

"Oh yeah?" The boy glanced over at Suzie. "What's the matter? One isn't enough for you?"

"Would you cut it out, Atsuo?" asked Suze, that annoyance again flaring in her heart again. She was starting to sympathize with her teacher's consistent complaints about headaches. "It's getting old."

"This kid givin' you trouble, toots?" asked Impmon, folding his arms behind his head.

"It's nothing, Impmon. Can you just…wait for your partners somewhere else? You're attracting an awful lot of attention."

"I could attract a whole lot more you know," grinned Impmon as he summoned a number of fireballs and began to juggle them. The children, with the exception of Atsuo, cheered at his antics.

"Hey!" Atsuo shouted. "What do you think you're doing?! Get out of here!"

Grabbing a soccer ball away from the nearest child, Atsuo dropped it and punted it in Impmon's direction. Dismissing his fireballs, Impmon leapt out of the way and glared at the boy. Atsuo glared back with equal ferocity.

_This is going to bite me in the butt later,_ thought Suzie despairingly as she grabbed Impmon by his bandanna. "That's enough of that! Impmon, we're getting out of here! You're going to have to wait for your partners somewhere else! Lopmon! Let's go!"

The gray furred bunny hopped after her partner before leaping up onto her head. The three of them quickly left the crowd of kids behind as they exited the gate. Suzie continued to run a little longer until she was far enough away from the gate to see that her fellow schoolmates were barely discernable before she slowed down and set Impmon down.

"What's that kid's problem?" asked Impmon, more than a little angry at what he had just experienced. "Did I get his schoolyard dirty or somethin'?"

"I don't think he would care about that," Suzie said, glaring in the direction of the school. "Atsuo just…doesn't like digimon, okay? He and I don't see eye to eye, and the fact that I'm a Tamer makes him target me a lot at school."

"Doesn't he know that you help protect the city?" asked Impmon.

"I don't think he cares," she replied, her eyes narrowing. "You see…he also hates Chinese."

"Chine-wha…?"

"Oh yeah. I forgot that you probably don't know much about the real world…

"Ai and Mako are starting to learn maps in school. I'm helpin' them out with that. I can tell where Japan is. China's the big place practically next door, ain't it?"

Suzie nodded, grateful that she wouldn't have to explain that much.

"My father is from that country originally. He moved here when he married Mom. All of us, me, Henry, Rinchei, and Jaarin. We're half Chinese by descent, and that's…been kinda problematic in some cases. Henry told me once he got into a fight with a neighborhood kid about it once, back when he was first learning martial arts."

"I don't get it. This kid hates you because your dad is from a different country."

"That's about the size of it."

Impmon looked Suzie over with a critical eye. "Why's that, exactly?"

"Look," said Suzie exasperatedly. "He just does. It makes me different from him, and that seems to be enough—at least it would be if I were _normal…" _As soon as she said that she felt Lopmon shift uncomfortably on her head, causing her to immediately regret her words. "…But I'm also a Tamer," she continued, reaching up to stroke her partner's ears affectionately, "and he doesn't like anything to do with Tamers."

"Sounds like crazy talk to me," said Impmon.

"Imagine how I feel," she replied, pointing to herself. "I have to put up with him every day. That's why you've got to be careful when coming here. I haven't thought it'd be important since you haven't shown up the way you did just now, but now that you have…"

"You're thinkin' this kid might turn on Ai and Mako if he catches wind about them bein' Tamers?"

"Probably not just him. My mom once said little kids are like water. One ripple affects them all, and usually in big ways. Some of them don't have to actually hate you either just to act that way. Ms. Asagi said it's something like peer pressure."

"Big ripple?"

"Yup." Suzie nodded. "So don't draw attention to yourself. Or to them for that matter. It's bad enough that I have to deal with it. I don't want those two getting mixed up. They're only seven."

"Hmmm…" Impmon rubbed one hand on his chin thoughtfully. "You know, I really don't get you humans sometimes. You can be the nicest of people to each other, and other times you make me look like a saint."

"I really don't get us either. Anyway, just remember what I said. I'll see you later."

"Not going to stay and chat?" asked Impmon, pretending to look insulted.

"Sorry," Suzie grinned. "I've got a test tomorrow in math. No way I can't get out of studying for that."

Impmon flashed her the thumbs up, to which she returned and the two parted ways. After a few moments of walking, she again reached up and stroked Lopmon's ears.

"I'm sorry about what I said earlier…"

"Don't be," Lopmon replied. "It's true…"

"Lopmon, I really wish you wouldn't say things like that." Suzie frowned and pursed her lips together. "You're the best thing that ever happened to me. I keep telling you that, and I wish you'd remember that."

"I just wish that my presence wouldn't be so troublesome for you…"

"Whether you were with me or not wouldn't matter," said Suzie. "Atsuo would have come after me anyway. My being a Tamer is like frosting on a cake. Just added stuff that gives him all the more reason to come after me. At least with you here I don't feel so bad. I can talk to you about what's on my mind…"

"What about your family?" asked Lopmon. Suzie's face became reflective.

"They can't always be there for me though. Dad works at Hypnos, Jaarin's busy with her last year of high school, Rinchei's trying to make it in college…"

"What about your mother and Henry? I'm sure Henry would be able to help yo…"

"Henry still treats me like I'm a baby," said Suzie, kicking at the ground irritably. "So does Mom for that matter…"

"That's because you're nothing but trouble."

Spinning on a dime, Suzie saw Atsuo and two of his friends coming right up to her at a rapid pace. Before she could do anything, the two other boys launched themselves at her and grabbed hold of her by the arms.

"Let me _go!"_ she screamed, struggling against their grasp. Atsuo approached her with a sadistic grin on his face. Lopmon jumped down in front of her partner, and the two boys stiffened, expecting a retaliatory response now.

"That thing is no big deal, guys," said Atsuo. Suzie saw that he was holding a soccer ball again. "It's not going to fight us."

"Leave her alone!"

"Or else you'll what?" laughed Atsuo, launching the ball at Lopmon. The tiny digimon leapt into the air, only to be snagged right out of it by Atsuo as his hand shot forward and grabbed her by the ear. "C'mon," he sneered. "Let's see what you _digimon_ got!"

That did it. The sight of seeing her partner being manhandled in that way caused Suzie to snap. Her foot shot out and stomped on the foot of the boy to her right, and stomped _hard._ The boy cried out in surprise as his leg trembled from the impact, but Suzie wasn't done yet. Her leg shifted as it rose and snapped outwards, kicking at the boy's weakened leg from behind his knee, sending him crashing to the ground. She turned towards the other boy to sock him in the face, but he was already a step in line with her, barreling directly into her and knocking her to the ground at the precise moment that her fist impacted him. She struggled and threw him off only to get beaned in the head as Lopmon was thrown at her. Suzie went down with a cry and Atsuo was on her in a second, pinning her and grabbing at her bag, forcing it off her despite her struggles.

"Give it _back!"_ she shouted, rising to her feet. She instinctively winced as a pain in the side of her skull lanced through her. _Ah…_

"You heard her!" Lopmon shouted, leaping in front of her, her paws drawn up into tiny fists. She was in a dilemma here. She could not fight a human, but seeing humans act so unjustly was pushing the limits of acceptable behavior.

As his two allies staggered over to his side, Atsuo simply gave the two a sneer as he ripped open Suzie's book bag and dumped her belongings on the ground. Suzie's eyes went wide as her white and pink trimmed digivice clattered on the ground helplessly. Seeing it, Atsuo snatched it up. Their eyes met briefly and the boy dashed away, his two friends quickly following behind.

"Ah!" Suzie shouted, already beginning to give chase. Before she could even take a step, the spot on her head where Lopmon had hit her flared, causing her to clutch it painfully.

"Suzie!" exclaimed Lopmon, leaping up onto her shoulder. "Are you all right?!"

"My…my digivice… He's got it…"

"We'll get it back, Suzie. I promise." Lopmon soothed her partner as best as she could by hugging her with her ears. She looked at the spot that Suzie was clutching worriedly. She had felt the impact through her horns. Did she…?

Lopmon didn't have time to give much thought about the situation as her senses alerted her to something.

"Oh no…Suzie… We have to get out of here. A digimon is coming."

"Wha…?" Suzie felt herself freeze up as a fog barrier began to fall upon her. "No… Not now!_ NO!"

* * *

_

A/N: I initially didn't plan on writing all this when considering Suzie's role in the series, but I did want to develop her character. I thought it would be a good idea to have her set the stage for the plot to kick off from. From that point on, Atsuo appeared as an antagonist to set her on that path, primarily because I wanted her to be angry about something other than a test and to shed some light about her school life. Given that she would likely be more public about being a Tamer, and as not everyone (especially adults who have influence over their children) would be in favor of digimon, this would lead her to have some clashes with some fellow classmates. That, and her Chinese heritage I believe would cause some trouble for her in school (going in a similar vein that the ever awesome author RGZ Archer did, albeit with a different character). So next chapter we'll be seeing the consequences of this, how it's dealt with, and how it sets the stage for the next part of the story. Until then. :)

-Crazyeight

* * *

7


	7. Suzie's Troubled Heart: Part 2

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.

Revival

Chapter: 7/ Suzie' Troubled Heart: Part 2

An explosion detonated upon the settling of the mist, blasting Suzie and Lopmon off their feet and throwing them to the ground. The two partners rolled across the streets before coming to a halt. Gasping, Suzie pushed herself up from off the ground and took a look around her.

What she saw did not comfort her.

Towering in the mist was a massive, dinosaur-like creature that she had seen before. A trio of horns erupted from a hardened head crest that just barely hid the powerful looking armor that arched along its back. Razor sharp fangs glinted as the mist scattered the light around it, and crimson eyes glowed as they took in their surroundings. Massive claws flexed themselves. They looked very powerful and very dangerous to Suzie.

She did not need her digivice to know that she was staring at a Triceramon.

_Ultimate Level…Data type…oh no…_

"Lopmon," Suzie whispered, moving as carefully and as slowly as she could so as to not attract attention, she reached out and pulled her partner close to her. "We've got to get out of here."

Triceramon's face snapped over in her direction and Suzie froze in fear. Crimson locked with violet and for a moment, the two of them stood stock still.

The moment ended quickly as Lopmon lifted her head up and groaned, finally beginning to recover from the impact. With a powerful roar, Triceramon charged forward, the earth shaking beneath every stomp of his clawed feet. Suzie couldn't believe how fast he was moving! There was no time at all to get out of the way! No time at a—!

**"Double Impact!"**

Twin rounds of high power projectiles crashed into Triceramon's skull, bringing the giant dinosaur crashing to a halt. A second later the lithe form of Beelzemon appeared out of thin air and lashed out with one leg, delivering a brutal kick to its head, sending it careening to the side with a cry of pain. Landing with all the grace of a dancer, Beelzemon quickly looked over at Suzie.

"Hey. You alright?"

Suzie nodded shakily, her eyes wide with fear and surprise. "I'm fine, but Lopmon…"

"I'll be okay…" the gray furred bunny replied. Shaking her head to clear out the remaining cobwebs, she hopped out of Suzie's arms.

"Hey, now," warned Beelzemon, already picking up on the rabbit Deva's intentions. "You sure you're up for this? You don't look so good."

"Lopmon!" exclaimed Suzie, getting down next to her partner. "We can't get involved in this fight. Remember? Atsuo stole my digivice!"

"He did _what _now?!"

Before either of them could answer, Triceramon, who had recovered from Beelzemon's attack, stormed forward with a mighty cry. Growling in annoyance, the demonic digimon raised his twin Berenjena shotguns and fired at the rampaging dinosaur. Triceramon lowered his head so that his bony crest took the blasts and continued onwards relentlessly.

"Awww…_nuts!"_ cursed Beelzemon, realizing that there wasn't enough time to adjust his aim and expect Suzie to remain all right—especially not with the way Triceramon was bearing down on him. _Forward momentum is going to keep him coming. Gotta stop him!_ Holstering his guns, Beelzemon leapt forward and caught Triceramon by the horns. The dinosaur's charge ground to a halt as it strained against Beelzemon's strength.

_C'mon…c'mon… Go down damn you!_ Beelzemon pushed against Triceramon, attempting to push it over, but with the limited space available to them he could not afford to put his full strength into the maneuver and expect zero damage to the surrounding infrastructure. As much as he hated the limitation, he knew that there was only so much he could do without causing _more_ trouble than was necessary.

_Something's not right here,_ he thought, his muscles continuing to strain against the Triceramon. The creature was pushing fiercely against him, bearing down on him with all of its power…and that was precisely the problem. Beelzemon grunted as he felt his arms buckle a little under the pressure. _This guy's a _lot_ stronger than he should be…_

"Suzie…" Beelzemon wheezed. "…You've got to get outta here."

"Wha…?"

_"I said get outta here!_ If Lopmon can't digivolve she can't protect you! This guy…"

Before Beelzemon could even finish his sentence, the Triceramon suddenly reared upwards, lifting Beelzemon up off the ground and tossing him into the air. Beelzemon let loose a surprised shout but did not let go, a fact that Triceramon was more than happy to take advantage of as it plowed into a nearby wall, attempting to gore the Mega with his horns.

_"Get out of here!"_ Beelzemon shouted as Triceramon pulled back, dragging the battered Demon Lord out of the ruined wall. Suzie stood frozen in place.

"I…I…" Suzie clenched her eyes shut. "I _can't!"_

At the girl's cry, Lopmon dashed forward, energy surging through her. Light enveloped her body and she expanded, changing in form as she spoke the words that invoked her digivolution.

**"Lopmon! Digivolve tooo…Antylamon!"**

The light died down, revealing a tall, acrobatic looking rabbit with long, powerful arms. Flipping into the air, Antylamon dove towards Triceramon as it reared back up onto its hind legs. The dinosaur surged forward, intending to stomp her down with its front legs, but the rabbit Deva was much too quick for him, sweeping its hind legs out from underneath it and grabbing it by the tail as it crashed to the ground. Beelzemon let out a grunt as he landed, this time letting go of the dinosaur's horns. Antylamon hoisted upwards with her arms, lifting its hind legs up to prevent it from moving easily.

"Okay bub," Beelzemon growled as he staggered to his feet. "Now that she's got you down, how about you calm down a bit, hah? This ain't exactly good for any of us…though if you _want_ to keep dancing, I'll be more than happy to oblige."

Beelzemon glared at the Triceramon, waiting for an answer. Triceramon stared back with its deep, blood red eyes, a low growl emanating in the back of its throat. An orange aura flashed around its body, and with a flick of its tail it sent Antylamon careening into a nearby wall. Its hind legs slammed back down onto the ground and the dinosaur leapt forward, impacting Beelzemon with its horns before he could even react. The air left Beelzemon's digital lungs as he found himself completely flabbergasted by the unexpected move.

_This creep's fast…_

Triceramon reared back up onto its hind legs, and in that instant all three of Beelzemon's eyes were drawn to its chest. An orange circle with a strange symbol on it stood out prominently, appearing as a set of horizontal lines that dipped down and up, with the upward part forming what he could only call a _crown_ by rough description. His third eye widened and focused on it—was _drawn_ to it…

The moment ended as the Triceramon began to descend, intent on crushing Beelzemon beneath the weight of its massive foot. Orange flames flared around Beelzemon's fist as he whipped it in front of him. The flames stretched outwards, forming a large, thick-bodied blade…a blade that Triceramon's foot drove itself down upon, point first.

Triceramon screamed as data flew through the air, and it ripped its claw free from Beelzemon's _Beast King Sword._ Moving on instinct, Beelzemon pulled out a Berenjena Shotgun and rained a series of blasts across Triceramon's chest. However, much to his surprise, the shells bounced harmlessly off his armored chest, doing no visible damage.

_What's with this guy!?_ Grated Beelzemon, aiming at the dinosaur's joints now, deciding that if a direct approach wasn't going to work, then an _indirect_ one would be better at immobilizing the dinosaur.

However, as he was quickly realizing, all it was doing was making the Triceramon rather angry.

_This guy ain't goin' down…_ thought Beelzemon, narrowly avoiding getting crushed by the Triceramon as it charged him again. The Demon Lord noted that the dinosaur didn't even seem to be noticing the injury in its front claw. It just charged at him recklessly, intent on him and him only. He slashed at the Triceramon with his sword, this time aiming for the obviously vulnerable eyes, hoping to force it on the defensive. The Triceramon was quick with adjusting its bony head crest though, and the blade bounced off its surface, again with no visible sign that it did anything.

_Just what is going on with this guy?_

As if in answer, the orange aura again surrounded Triceramon, and it increased its attack three fold, pressing home on Beelzemon until it finally caught him between its upper two horns and brutally smashed him through another wall. Beelzemon collapsed in the yard on the other side, groaning as pain racked his body.

_Just how…is this guy…so freakin' strong?_ Beelzemon panted in his mind as he desperately tried to recover._ No matter what I throw at him…he just keeps comin'. This…this shouldn't be possible…_

"Impmon!"

Beelzemon's eyes shot open as the sound of his partners calling for him caught the Triceramon's attention. _No…I thought I told them to…_

Beelzemon was surging to his feet again, but Triceramon was quick to put an end to it by slamming its claw on him, crushing him to the ground. Beelzemon dug his claws into its scales, straining to push it off, but the creature's strength was beyond what it should have been for its level. The glowing, orange circle was back again on its chest, pulsating wildly, as though in excitement. Letting go with one claw, Beelzemon scrabbled to find his shotgun.

_Oh no…_ he thought in dismay as he found that it had fallen well beyond his reach. Not that it was too much of a problem, but…

"Get…_away_ from him!"

A bolt of lightning slammed into Triceramon's back and a second later a red and white armored figure crashed into him, throwing it backwards and off Beelzemon. The Demon Lord gasped and wheezed as he rolled over, catching his breath and grabbing his fallen weapons all in one smooth motion. He looked up and grinned. Never before had he been so happy to see Gallantmon arrive to save the day.

_Same old Pineapple head…_

Gallantmon swiftly ducked beneath a claw swipe by the Triceramon and quickly counterattacked by slamming his shield into its face. The dinosaur fell backwards, taken off guard by the blow. Antylamon, who was now recovered, leapt forward to assist the Royal Knight, but a quick slap by its tail threw her into a nearby house, demolishing it utterly and distracting Gallantmon. Triceramon was more than happy to take advantage of that momentary distraction.

_"Pineapple Head!"_ shouted Beelzemon, already raising his shotgun and pulling the trigger. _"Pay attention! That dino creep is going to…"_

But he was too late. Moving far faster than even Beelzemon, with his already harshly earned experience, expected, the Triceramon slammed its claw into Gallantmon's side, sending a spider-web of cracks flowing up his armor. The force of the blow threw him down the street, where he impacted the ground with enough force to crack its surface. Orange flared again around Triceramon's body, but before it could even do anything, Antylamon was again on it, leaping onto its back and grabbing its horns. Triceramon threw its head back and slammed it into the ground, trying to throw the rabbit off. Antylamon held on tightly, refusing to let go.

_All right…_ thought Beelzemon, dashing forward. _That's enough!_

The Triceramon lifted its head and was just about to roar when Beelzemon was suddenly there, cramming both barrels of his Berenjena shotgun into its mouth. Its eyes flew wide in surprise as Beelzemon narrowed his.

**"Double Impact!"** The Demon Lord shouted as he squeezed the trigger. His arm bucked from the recoil and twin explosions sounded in the dinosaur's throat. The data around the back of its neck flared unstably and the orange glow that surrounded it vanished in the wink of an eye. Looking into Triceramon's eyes, Beelzemon noticed something rather startling. Its eyes, which had been red throughout the rest of the battle, were now clear blue.

"Wha…?" he stammered in surprise as the Triceramon's eyes rolled up. A second later, Triceramon burst into shards of data, and Beelzemon and Antylamon dropped to the streets.

* * *

From behind a wall leading into an alley he watched as more of the Tamers descended, keeping his attention focused on Suzie Wong as she pushed herself into the arms of her older brother almost immediately upon landing. Raising one heavily burnt hand, he glanced down at the pink trimmed digivice within it.

"Experiment one inconclusive," the figure said, raising one hand to stroke his chin a little irritably. As though listening to a voice only he could hear, the figure nodded. "Understood."

Tossing the digivice to the side, the figure stepped back into the shadows and disappeared.

* * *

Riley looked down at Takato with an unpleased expression on her face. The teen, wearing red and blue goggles Rika had given him, sat on the edge of the ambulance as a doctor treated his injuries.

"I told you that you shouldn't go charging off like that," she said to him. Takato gave her a pained, but placating smile.

"Sorry. But Guilmon was really pushing to get there as soon as we could."

"Uh, huh," nodded Guilmon next to his partner. "Don't blame Takato. It's my fault…"

"You both biomerged. I'm pretty sure that the blame doesn't lie with just you alone, Guilmon."

"Ohhh…sorry Takato."

"Don't be," soothed Takato, raising one hand to pat his partner on the head. He almost immediately regretted it as pain lanced through his side where he had been struck as Gallantmon.

"Hold still," warned the doctor, checking the boy's side. A rather nasty, dark discoloration blotted the length of his chest where he had been struck as Gallantmon. Similar markings were also present on Guilmon, but thanks to his digital constitution they were clearing up quickly. Takato unfortunately wasn't quite as lucky as his partner.

Takato nodded before continuing. "She is right anyway. We both thought it was a good idea to get here as quick as we could anyway."

"And it's a good thing too," chimed in Impmon from his spot on the ambulance's roof. "You showin' up when you did distracted that guy and gave me the time I needed to get back into the fight." Turning towards Riley he frowned at her. "Trust me. If he didn't show up when he did, things would have gotten _really_ bad."

"Was it really that bad?" asked Riley.

"What? You didn't see how it beat the snot out of Pineapple Head and Goggleboy here? Those two are at the Mega level when biomerged. _I_ was at the Mega level, and Lopmon there," Impmon indicated the gray furred rabbit sitting atop Suzie's head as she was being comforted by her brother, "was at the Ultimate. Triceramon is an Ultimate, and he's also a data type, so he's not only outnumbered and outleveled, he's also got a type disadvantage to boot! And he _clobbered_ us _all_ for a good long while before I was finally able to put him down. Now you tell me if that's 'bad'."

"I see your point." Riley sighed and massaged her forehead. "This is really strange. Did you notice anything strange about the digimon while you were fighting it?"

"It had some kind of weird mark on its chest," said Impmon, pointing to his own for emphasis. "Don't know what it was…" _though it looked sorta familiar,_ he finished up in his mind. Scratching the side of his head, he wracked his brains, trying to figure out what the mark was and where he could have seen it before. Nothing came to him however, and he put the thought on the backburner for now.

"And…?" continued Riley.

Impmon shrugged. "Seemed to give it quite the attitude problem. I tell ya, the guy acted like…well, no offense Pineapple Head, but he kinda acted like you when you became Megidramon in the digital world. It was _that_ nasty!"

"Don't worry, Impmon," replied Guilmon, shaking his head and offering his friend a small smile. "My feelings aren't hurt. Actually," Guilmon tapped one claw on his chin thoughtfully. "I kind of agree with you. There was something about what I sensed when it bio-emerged that made me think the same thing as you. That's why I wanted me and Takato to get here so fast."

Takato nodded. He had felt Guilmon's urgency as soon as they had biomerged and took off. The sensation that he felt through his digimon enhanced senses had been pretty powerful. It wasn't quite the same as what Megidramon had been, but it was close enough to actually frighten him.

"Well, either way, I don't think that you'll be able to participate in any missions to the digital world with injuries like that," said Riley, looking the boy over. His hands were bandaged from his fight with the MasterTyrannomon the other day. He was fortunate that the burns were light enough to not hinder him, but the most recent set…

"How is he doc?" she asked.

"Extremely lucky that he got off with just a bad bruise," said the doctor, heaving a relieved sigh. "That's about all I can say, but I don't recommend that he get involved in any more combat situations until he's recovered."

"I'll make sure of that," nodded Riley. "And I'll make sure that your teachers will too. We were interrupted from our little meeting with them as I recall…"

Takato frowned. "I don't think that's a good idea…"

"No. What you did today wasn't a good idea. We can't have our star Tamer getting injured in fights because he doesn't look before he leaps. You're a part of Hypnos now, and while it's our top priority to ensure the safety of the people around us, it's also important that you remain fit to do that duty. No more charging headlong into fights, okay?"

Takato frowned, not answering. Riley fixed him with a hard look.

"Is that understood?" she asked a little heatedly, placing her hands on her hips.

"Yes, ma'am."

"All right. I'll talk to your teachers later. I'd like for you to go home as soon as you're finished up here."

"But…"

"Don't make it an order, Takato."

Takato clamped his mouth shut and nodded. Impmon watched the two with a bored expression on his face before hopping down from the ambulance, folding his arms behind his head.

"All right. If we're done here, I'm going to take your advice and get my partners home. I'm sure their mom is freakin' out about why they're not home yet."

"All right."

Satisfied, Riley turned towards the next situation that she was going to have to deal with. Suzie.

The little girl was holding herself tightly, having finally, more or less, calmed down. She had a bandage wrapped around her head, courtesy of an impact with her own partner if Riley remembered correctly, but fortunately it wasn't anything serious. Henry, Kazu, Kenta, and Ayaka were standing nearby, working with their digivices.

"So what's going on here?" asked Riley, approaching them, a concerned look on her face. "Is Suzie all right?"

"Not unless you count having your digivice stolen off you as 'fine'," said Terriermon sarcastically.

"Terriermon…"

"Is that true?" asked Riley, looking over at Suzie. The young girl nodded. Her expression softening, Riley went over to her and bent down so that she was at eye level with her. "What happened."

"It's…" Suzie swallowed. "It's a classmate of mine. Atsuo… He's been bothering me for a while now and today…right before the bio-emergence he attacked me. He stole my digivice."

"I'm sorry honey," Riley said sympathetically, placing one hand on the girl's head comfortingly. _I guess that's something else I'm going to have to check out, _she thought looking up at the other Tamers. "Are you trying to use your digivices to find hers?"

Henry nodded. "Yeah. As you know they have built in tracking systems, though they're usually keyed in for digimon. However there's a subprogram that allows us to locate each—ah. There we go." Henry raised an eyebrow and turned towards a nearby alley. "That's weird. It's right over there."

"Eh?" Hopping off Henry's head, Terriermon glanced over at the alley curiously. "As in 'right over there' over there, and not 'in that direction' over there?"

"It's definitely close by," agreed Kenta, adjusting his glasses. Kazu rushed on over to the alley and took a look around. It didn't take him long to bend down and pick up a pink trimmed D-Arc and show it to everyone for confirmation.

"That's the one," nodded Henry. Suzie rushed on over to Kazu, and the boy gave it to her.

"Man. What a little jerk," scowled Kazu as they both made their way back to the main group. "What kind of kid up and steals stuff like that?"

"This coming from _you _of all people?" commented Ayaka, folding her arms over her chest. Kazu leveled a deeply offended glare at Ayaka.

"Have I ever stolen anything from you?"

"You stole my shoes once."

"With the intention of _never_ giving them back?" amended Kazu with a snort. "Besides, I only did it the one time just to get a rise out of you. The black eye you gave me taught me to never try it again. Besides, I _never_ take anything important."

"It was a good thing that Suzie was able to digivolve Lopmon without it though," said Kenta, trying to steer the conversation away from the inevitable conflict between the two. Henry nodded in agreement.

_She's always had a greater capacity for that sort of thing than the rest of us,_ he thought. _She never needed a blue card when she was younger._

Even so, Henry knew that they more or less lucked out in this case.

"Suzie," he said, bending down so that he was at eye level with her. "From now on I want you to keep your digivice by your side at all times. You'll need to wear a belt so that you can use the strap on it, but at least that way it won't be so easy to just take your digivice like that."

"I understand," nodded Suzie, wiping at her eyes with one hand. Henry pressed his lips into one thin line and placed his hands on her shoulders comfortingly before standing back up.

"Are we done?" he asked Riley. The red haired woman nodded in affirmation.

"I'll stick around until Hypnos' damage control teams are done cataloguing the scope of the damage here. Fortunately no one was home in the house that Antylamon was thrown into, but…" Riley sighed. Property damage was never a fun thing to have to deal with. "Well, anyway, you should all get going anyway. It wouldn't do you any good to still be here if the family returns home and becomes angry."

"I'm sure they'll be glad that the government is going to be footing the bill on the repair costs," said Terriermon cheerfully as he hopped back up onto his partner's head. With that, the Tamers began to disperse and head off towards home. Riley watched them with a troubled look on her face.

* * *

"Suzie," began Henry as soon as the two of them separated from the others. "I thought you told me that things were going better for you at school."

He hadn't meant for his words to sound harsh, but they did, and Suzie recoiled a little against him as a result. Nonetheless, she stayed pressed to him, as though seeking some measure of reassurance by his presence.

"Sorry, Henry," the young girl said miserably. "I thought…well, for a little while there he was letting up on me. Then today something just seemed to snap with him. I didn't expect him to come after me after school like he did. He's never done that before."

"He never bothers her outside of school," Lopmon supplied from her position on Suzie's shoulder, taking care that her ears didn't disturb the young girl's bandages. "In fact, they were both on the playground last week and he didn't do anything towards her."

"Did you do anything that might have angered him?" asked Henry. Suzie shook her head.

"We didn't talk, and my friends and I were getting ready to leave then anyway."

Henry furrowed his brow, wondering if she was holding anything back on him. However, he knew enough that he shouldn't push the issue any further than she was willing to give…at least not now anyway. Still, he knew that he couldn't just _not_ leave this alone.

_Were kids always like this when I was her age?_ He wondered.

"Suzie…I've been teaching you a little bit of martial arts when I first heard about you having trouble with this kid."

Suzie nodded. She had taken a few lessons with her older brother and even her father on the side, but due to their busy schedules, she hadn't been able to do much with either of them. On top of that, she lacked the interest in the martial arts that they did. Henry had been just a little kid when he first started, no older than her when she first became a Tamer if not younger. She was closing on eleven now, and she didn't even try to practice what little she had been taught in her spare time, unlike her brother and father who trained regularly at least once a night on the roof or, as in Henry's case, with a teacher to stay in practice.

"I'm not going to force you if you don't want to, but after today's incident I think you should consider taking a self-defense class. I don't want you to decide now—I think we should wait on that until you've calmed down a bit, but I do want you to think about it."

"I will, Henry," replied Suzie, her eyes dropping to the ground.

* * *

A/N: Not too much to say about this chapter, except that the mystery continues to deepen. A little bit more character development for Suzie, which will take some interesting twists and turns as the story progresses.

One of the issues with Tamers, and something that Blazing Chaos also mentioned in his work, was that the rather large number of Megas in the series tends to make it difficult to have battles that actually challenge our heroes. Once you're at the Mega level, lower tier villains that set the plot just aren't really up to snuff until you get to a big bad. Given that there's a problem going on in the digital world that is of rather epic proportions, I figured that it would be interesting to have what would be normally weaker digimon be far stronger than they should be. I've left hints as to what the origin of this source of strength enhancement is, so kudos bars to anyone who can guess it.

Until next chapter then. :P

-Crazyeight

* * *

8


	8. Motivations

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.

Revival

Chapter: 8/ Motivations

"Nice to know that the Branch system worked out just fine," said Prometheus, digging at his teeth with a wooden toothpick. Behind him, Maelstrom's tail swished through the air in agitation.

"Not everything worked out to your expectations," the steel dragon noted coolly. Prometheus shrugged his shoulders, continuing to dig around his teeth.'

"No one ever said that it would. Predictions are merely estimations of future events based on available information. But people aren't that easy to predict, be they digimon or human. In case you didn't notice, they tend to be a little chaotic. A nice little gimmick that went into them during their evolution. Sometimes, all it takes is for one of them to trip over the right rock and as soon as they're on their back, suddenly the whole world takes a different look to it. You should try lying on your back sometime. Get used to seeing the world differently. You might be surprised by what you see."

Maelstrom's tail took on a sharp whip to it and then stilled. Prometheus paused in his digging around his mouth before resuming.

"At any rate, all is not lost. We'll just try again, that's all. No big deal."

"And if it does not work again?" asked Maelstrom pointedly. Prometheus grinned.

"Then I guess that makes us insane, doesn't it?" Prometheus withdrew his toothpick and tossed it to the side. "The calculations are right anyway. We just had some bad luck this time. If the environment can be isolated, with _no_ outside interference save for everything that we have in there, then we'll get our answer. It only needs to be there for a second or two, and we'll have our answer. Once we get that, we can proceed to the next step."

"How can you be so sure?" asked Maelstrom.

"You 'pushed' her, didn't you?" Prometheus looked at Maelstrom with a smirk on his face. "You were right there, in her face. What would you say was her emotional weather at the time?"

Maelstrom's eyes gleamed. "Angry."

"It's a known fact that when a human has their buttons pushed on a regular basis, enough stress accumulates that their ability to control themselves becomes harder for them. Generally people are happy as long as any stress they have is equal to or less than the happiness that they experience. Take this building for example. If stressed just a little, it can be repaired with little to no difficulty. Increase that stress continuously, then the damage can't be repaired as easily or as quickly. The damage increases to crucial points, and sometimes—just sometimes—some damage might end up getting missed. Eventually…kaboom."

Prometheus clapped his hands together and then threw them apart dramatically. He turned towards Maelstrom.

"Do you understand now? She's under regular stress. Today was a big push that hurt her badly up here." Prometheus tapped his forehead. "It won't take much more. A personal invasion is one that hurts quite a lot. You've done that. Now it just needs to be increased."

"And you're certain it will work?"

"Eventually. The greatest of fortresses fall eventually. You know that. Lumemon knows that. Takato knows that. In fact," Prometheus turned towards the city view in front of him, a contemplative look crossing his features, "I think anger is an emotion that all of the Tamers are quite familiar with."

* * *

Yamaki looked down at his watch and grimaced.

"Time allotted since our last communication with Urocyomon?" he asked Tally. The Hypnos Operator typed on her keyboard before she answered him.

"Twenty-four hours on the dot," she said. Yamaki nodded.

_ Not a good sign. It looks like we have no options left for us._

"Tally. Inform the Tamers that they are to meet here as soon as they are able. Their first job is starting."

* * *

"That went well…" breathed Takato as he, Guilmon, Kazu, and Guardromon made their way down the streets away from the ambulance. Kazu chuckled as he folded his arms behind his head.

"You call that 'going well?'"

"You're probably right about that," laughed Takato, only to stop as he winced and clutched at his side. "It's not a good sign," he continued, "if I think just getting injured during a fight counts as 'going well'."

Kazu, Guilmon, and Guardromon all looked at him worriedly.

"We made it out, okay, didn't we?" asked Guilmon. "That digimon was really strong. When I felt it, I got so worried…"

"I know, Guilmon. I know." Takato furrowed his brow as he thought about the battle. "That was a rough one…"

"Maybe you're right too, Chumley," said Kazu. "I mean, if that Triceramon was as strong as you and Impmon said it was, then maybe it is a good sign that you came out of it okay. Any clue as to what all that was about?"

Takato shook his head. "No idea."

"C'mon," Kazu groaned. "Your brain's always thinking up something for everything. I remember when you thought that monkey Deva Makuramon was a robot." Kazu laughed. "Heck, you were always going on about how Hypnos was some weird government agency dealing with aliens before we actually found out anything about them."

"Hey! What was I supposed to think? Guilmon was running around in the park when I saw all those black vans, and on TV whenever there were black vans there were aliens."

"I don't know Takato," said Guilmon. "Some of your ideas can be really silly. You were once afraid that you'd find me in a vat when you were looking for me in the park. But there aren't any vats in the park."

Takato's left eye twitched as he felt as though he were being ganged up on.

"I was only twelve years old at the time. My brain was full of all sorts of weird stuff. I read too many comic books back then."

"You still do," joked Kazu. "And your brain is still swimming with all sorts of weird ideas."

"Are they any stranger than the ones you have?" asked Guardromon. Kazu raised an eyebrow at his partner.

"What do you mean? I'm perfectly normal compared to this guy!"

"Your mother seemed to be of a completely different opinion when she was cleaning your room last week. For some reason she was quite upset over the manga she found underneath your be…"

"…And that's enough out of you," grumbled Kazu, pounding one fist lightly against Guardromon's iron stomach. "And that's not weird. Any healthy guy would look into that sort of thing."

"…Right…" deadpanned Takato with a disbelieving look on his face.

"Don't give me that. I'm pretty sure you've got your own stash, Chumley."

"Um…actually…I don't."

"Say wha…?" Kazu looked at his friend, completely flabbergasted. "No way! _You?_ That's…"

"Rika got really mad at him one time when we went to Akihabara," piped in Guilmon. He tapped one claw on his chin thoughtfully and then laughed. "She said a lot of weird things that day that I didn't understand then…"

"Akihabara?" asked Kazu, raising an eyebrow. "It's quite the place, even a little bit weird for some people's tastes, but I don't think that's anything to get angry about. Takato's always been a little weird anyway. But what's that got to do with…?"

"Let's not talk about this," said Takato a little uncomfortably, patting his partner on the head. Kazu grinned.

"You know…Terriermon keeps going on about that day…"

"Just let it go, okay, Kazu?" Takato's face was beginning to go red now from embarrassment. Kazu snickered.

"You know, somehow it's looking like this whole 'connection' thing you two have got going is a lot more of a disadvantage than you two have made it out to be…"

"Drop it, Kazu," warned Takato, giving his friend a hard look. Seeing it, Kazu shrugged and let the matter die.

"You know…" he began after a few moments of silence. "Your parents aren't going to be happy when they see that you got yourself hurt for the second time in a row this week. I can run distraction for you if you want…"

"Thanks Kazu, but I'll manage. It's not like this is something that is difficult to hide…though they're likely to find out eventually." Takato winced as he took in a breath.

"How're you holding up?"

"…Not good." Takato pressed one hand against his side. "But it could have been worse."

"If Rika were there, it probably would have."

Takato frowned at his friend, but let the comment go.

"Anyway, I don't know how I'm going to explain this to my folks and not get grounded for it."

"You still get grounded? You kill me, Chumley."

"You do too, if I'm not mistaken, Kazu," remarked Guardromon.

"…That's different," Kazu grumbled. "Hey, cheer up. At least you'll get to get out of working in the Bakery for a while."

"Kazu, I don't think this is going to get me out of helping out around there…"

Takato stopped as he heard Guilmon sniffing the air, questioning it vigorously.

"Uh…is everything okay, boy?"

"I smell Renamon and Rika," the crimson dinosaur replied. "They were here not too long ago."

"And she didn't jump in to help?" asked Kazu incredulously. "That's not right. I thought she liked picking fights with digimon."

"Kazu!" Takato scolded before closing his eyes and lowering the screens in his mind. Reaching out, he tried to find his red haired friend…

_…The glow of smoldering embers… That's not good._

It was funny. Over the course of the years, he had come to associate some of Rika's moods with scents and images. He found them to be the best part of the bond he shared with the girl. On any given day she could be calm and serene; something that Takato would liken to wind chimes or a flute being played slowly. Other times she could be excited, and it would be like watching a water fall. Even when she was angry, her emotions were still something he found…_beautiful,_ for lack of a better word, though this last of course meant that he ought to at least be careful.

The fact that her screens were down though was at least encouraging. The fact that the image he got from her as being smoldering embers was even more so.

_She's still angry,_ thought Takato, _but not as much as she used to be._ Takato clenched his burnt hands as he withdrew his mind and raised his own privacy screens. Some slight pain made itself known in his palms, but they weren't as bad as he remembered them being, as though they had somehow become a manifestation of his oft rocky friendship with Rika.

_Of course,_ he thought, a little bit embarrassed by the idea, _that's just ridiculous._

"Hey. Earth to Chumley." Kazu waved one hand in front of Takato's face, causing him to jump a little, startled.

"Ah! Wha…?"

"It's about time, dude. You were spacing out. By the way, we're here." Kazu pointed at the bakery, and Takato blinked, surprised.

"When did we…?"

"Just now. You were just about to walk past it. By the way, I think you have a visitor." With a dry expression, Kazu pointed through the glass doors towards the cashier counter. Standing in front of his mother, paying for a piece of Guilmon bread, stood Rika.

"Good afternoon, boys," said Renamon as she materialized out of thin air behind them.

"Hey, Renamon," said Kazu, grinning. "What's going on?"

"Heading home," replied Renamon, though a quick glance into the bakery had her amend, "or so it seems."

"Huh?" Takato tilted his head to the side questioningly, but Renamon was quick to shift the conversation.

"You're injured."

Takato pressed one hand to his side and grimaced. "I got taken off guard by bulldozer of a Triceramon," he chuckled, only to wince again as he did so. Renamon eyed him critically.

"I know that your style involved leaping in without thinking," she told him bluntly, "but I didn't think you would be quite so careless."

"It's not like that," said Kazu, trying to defend his friend. "This guy was stronger than your usual run-of-the-mill Triceramon. He even tossed Beelzemon around like a ragdoll until Chumley showed up."

Renamon narrowed her eyes thoughtfully and looked over at Guilmon.

"It's true," Guilmon said, noticing her unspoken question. "He had Beelzemon pinned while we were getting there."

"I see." Renamon folded her arms across her chest and closed her eyes. "Of course, Impmon always did talk more about how strong he was than actually proving it."

Now both Tamers tilted their head to one side, as did Guilmon in confusion.

"Do you find it as weird as I do that Renamon's trying to make a joke?" asked Kazu.

"Um…I think I'll take the fifth on that, Kazu…"

"My apologies," said Renamon, sighing. "I was attempting to…'lighten the situation', as Terriermon puts it. I see that it was in vain however…"

"No!" exclaimed Takato, catching the vixen off guard as he waved a hand in a placating manner in front of her. "No. It's…it's good! It's just…you…ah…kind of need to work on it a little."

"I see." Renamon tilted an ear thoughtfully. "In either case, do either of you know if we'll be summoned to Hypnos in regards to this matter?"

"What?" asked Kazu. "About you making jokes or about the Triceramon?"

"Kazu!"

"Momentai," said Renamon, allowing a small, invisible smile to curve on her muzzle. The two boys blinked at her.

"That…is just creepy," said Kazu.

"Uh…back on subject now," said Takato, snapping out of his daze. "We haven't heard anything from Hypnos yet. Riley was overseeing the area we fought in…"

"More like estimating the tax yen it's going to cost to rebuild it. Actually, come to think of it, she really didn't tell us what was going on…"

"She told Takato to take it easy," supplied Guilmon helpfully.

"Mostly she told us to leave before we drew a crowd," said Takato. "I'll bet that we're going to be getting a call from Yamaki soon."

As though to confirm the teen's estimation, twin cell phones rang within the Tamers' pants pockets. Pulling them out in unison, they flipped them open and read the text message they received.

"And that was him," confirmed Takato. "We'd better grab Rika and…"

"Already ahead of you," came the girl's voice as the doors slid open. "But nice to know that you're thinking of me."

"Um…right," replied Takato, opening his screens just a hair to check on her emotional weather, hoping that it was still there.

_Um…a dark cloud over the sun?_

Sensing his 'peek', Rika glanced over in his direction. The two looked at each other for a moment, all the while being watched by Kazu with an uncertain expression on his face.

"All right." Takato said finally, adjusted his goggles. "Let's go."

* * *

"You were worried," Rika said simply as they made their way towards Hypnos. Takato chuckled nervously.

"Well, you were kind of angry with me yesterday," he said, rubbing the back of his head. "You didn't like the idea of me getting rid of MasterTyrannomon the way I did when he was unleashing his attack."

Rika _hmmmphed_.

"I've seen you get angry at me for trying similar stuff…risking sacrificing myself—or something important to me—to solve a problem."

"I didn't say I blamed you. I understand you perfectly on that…"

As soon as Takato said that, he sensed a bright flare behind Rika's screen. It only lasted for a second though, and her screens shut themselves up all at once. Takato blinked, rather startled by that. Although they had spent time shutting themselves off from each other for when they needed privacy, never since the early days of their connection had either of them closed off from each other with such suddenness. Before he could even comment on it though, she took hold of his hand with her own.

"Rika…?"

"How come you're wearing your school uniform?"

Takato blinked in surprise, and the two Tamers turned to look at Kazu, who was walking with Guardromon behind them with a bored, slightly annoyed expression on his face. Rika glared at the teen.

"What?"

"I was just wondering why you're still wearing your school uniform. You don't normally go anywhere except to school wearing it."

Rika's hand dropped from Takato's as fury rose up in the girl's eyes.

_There's that flash again,_ thought Takato as Rika's screens broke for just a moment.

"Kazu…there was a _bio-emergence!_ Renamon was telling me that it was a _bad_ one and that we had to get there as quickly as we could! I had _no_ time to go home and get changed! Why would you even _ask_ that at a time like this?"

"Hey, c'mon Rika. Take it easy," said Takato, trying to calm the girl down as she confronted Kazu with her ire. Even though she was now smaller than Kazu due to the misfortunes of puberty, Takato had to admit that she still projected herself with more than enough presence to make him a little worried.

"Sorry, sorry," said Kazu, looking away with a regretful look on his face. Rika _hmmmphed_ as she forced herself to calm down.

"You can be so dense, you know that?" she said harshly. Spinning away, Rika walked away from the two at an increased pace, closing off all her screens now. Takato looked at Kazu with a worried look, and the teen shrugged apologetically. With that, the two resumed their course.

* * *

Guardromon eyed his partner carefully as they continued to make their way down the streets, his rust colored eyes showing nothing but worry. After Takato had turned away, he had noticed a change in Kazu's expression. It continued to be regretful, but there was something else in it that, for the moment, Guardromon could not identify. He searched through his memory banks for something that could help him pinpoint what was going through his mind.

_This is disconcerting,_ thought Guardromon as he finished going through his stored memory files. _I can't seem to find anything that matches up. Perhaps I need to review them more closely...

* * *

_

"I don't know about it, Lumemon," said Noriko as she and the angelic digimon stepped out of the elevator. "I mean, it doesn't sound like something that Hypnos would ever go for."

"It might not be," said Lumemon. "But I am curious about the possibility. I've always been interested in…"

"Oh!" Noriko blinked in surprise as the elevator next to theirs opened, and a familiar face stepped out into the hall. "Mr. Wong!"

"Afternoon Noriko," smiled Janyu, nodding to the two. "And to you to, Lumemon. How are you?"

"We're fine," Noriko replied, bowing respectfully to the man. Pleasantly pleased by the girl he returned her bow.

"Is there something I can do for you?" he asked. "I don't see Henry with you…"

"We're here to see Yamaki," said Noriko, fidgeting a little uncomfortably, as though in embarrassment. "We got a message from him telling us to meet with him. He didn't say what, but I think I know what it's about. There was a bio-emergence, and Henry went to deal with it. Before Lumemon and I could even get there the fight was already over."

"Such is the advantage when his partner is capable of evolving to an incredibly fast, Ultimate level digimon," noted Lumemon. "My wings aren't capable of breaking the same speeds as he, even with a speed upgrade card."

"I wasn't saying anything, Lumemon…"

"Huh?" Lumemon cocked an eyebrow at his partner. Noriko sighed. She thought that her partner believed she was making fun of him.

"Anyway, Lumemon was saying about how this digimon was extremely powerful. I think Yamaki wants everyone to know about it."

"It might be a new breed of invading digimon…possibly Mega," supplied Lumemon. Noriko glowered at him.

"Lumen…"

"That's what you were saying while we were heading down here."

"W-Well, you were the one telling me to get a move on because it was _so_ strong! What else am I supposed to think?"

Janyu chuckled. "Either way, it appears that we both have the same purpose in mind. Yamaki called me, saying he wants to meet with me as well. I'm willing to bet that our two meetings are related."

"I'll bet that'll give Henry some peace of mind," smiled Noriko. Janyu smiled back.

"That aside, are you going to be coming by for dinner tonight?"

Noriko's eyes widened in surprise at the rather direct question, and she floundered over her next words.

"Oh…no, I-I couldn't…"

Lumemon rolled his eyes exasperation.

_ You've done it before,_ he thought. _You're always so modest and shy about these dinners at Henry's apartment._

"Don't worry," soothed Janyu. "You know my wife and my daughter—Jaarin—enjoy having you around. It's no trouble at all. Come on. I'm sure Mayumi's just dying to fix something for Terriermon and Lopmon for when they get in."

"The fact that she spoils Terriermon is a great curiosity to me," said Lumemon. "I don't know any other humans who bother allowing him such…liberties."

"You'd be surprised by what she lets him get away with, and believe me, it doesn't help Henry's nerves all that much. Anyway, why don't you come? You know Mayumi always appreciates your help…and I'm sure Henry would appreciate it too."

Noriko glanced away furtively for a moment before meeting Janyu's eyes with a firmer gaze. Lumemon was trying hard not to smile at the girl's nigh painful shyness. Slowly, ever so slowly, Janyu was persuading her to come around.

_Oh yes. He knows quite well what is going on between those two, even if they haven't admitted it to themselves. When it comes to these two, it's not a matter of 'if', it's 'when'._

"Well…" said Noriko finally. "…maybe for a little bit…"

* * *

Yamaki opened up the door to the main meeting room to find the Tamers and his chief Monster Maker, Janyu Wong, all seated at the table and waiting for him. Nodding to each and every one of them, Yamaki sat down and leaned back, flicking his lighter open but once.

"Thank you all for coming. It appears that we may have a situation, so depending on the outcome of events you are going to receive your first mission. The twenty-four hour window has passed, and we still have not received any word from Urocyomon. As a result, I have ordered an investigation."

Terriermon shifted in his spot on the table. "We're going on a road trip to the digital world…"

"Terriermon…"

* * *

A/N: Late chapter this time, mainly because school is starting to peg me with assignments and the beginnings of final projects and exams, all of which require my attention. On top of that, there were some bits when I was writing this chapter that didn't fit well with the story, so I had to rewrite everything from the first scene on up. Nothing serious, but it's definitely something of a road block.

Minor plot development and some stuff involving Takato and Rika, though they were interrupted by Kazu. For the record, and I forgot to mention this in my previous notes before, but Akihabara is an area in Tokyo that is quite popular for electronics, computer, and anime and otaku goods. Manga such as 'Genshiken' have described it as, roughly, an all-purpose place for anime/manga fandoms, and by 'all purpose' they meant 'all purpose', of which a more thorough description would probably require me to change the rating of this fic. Make of that what you will, though all is not what it appears to be.

More chapters on the way. 'Till then.

-Crazyeight

* * *

8


	9. Gateway

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.

Revival

Chapter: 9/ Gateways

Rika lay on Takato's bed, flipping through one of his manga, trying to work up some interest in the plot. Glancing out of the corner of her eye, her gaze fell on her friend as he sat at his desk, his pencil wavering between sketching, erasing, and tapping on the side of his head thoughtfully. Through their link she could feel his frustration simmering beneath the surface of his thoughts, ever present.

_I want to tell him that it'll be all right, but that won't stop him from worrying._ Rika pursed her lips together and returned her attention to the manga. _And it's not like he needs me to hold his hand through this anyway._

Rika frowned. She wondered if that was the reason why she was here though, to 'hold his hand'. Not in the literal sense, but more by the virtue of her presence, serving as a buffer between his frustrations boiling over and to hold it back. Of course, she knew that when it came to that, there was very little, if anything to worry about. Takato, she knew would try to never let his emotions get the best of him, whether he was with someone or alone. He had come a long way since his more disastrous early days as a Tamer, and found constructive outlets for his emotions, such as what he was doing right now.

_Maybe I'm just the one who's worrying needlessly,_ thought Rika, glancing over a line and turning the page with little interest. Even then she knew that thought was wrong. Her reasons for being there may be a safety valve and might not, but some things she knew from experience were better dealt with even with the silent presence of a close friend than none at all. Shifting onto her side so that she gained a more complete view of Takato, she allowed herself a small smile.

_Renamon may not be human, but with the advice she gives sometimes, I'd think she's got us figured out pretty well._

Takato's chair creaked as he stretched and stuck his pencil behind his ear. Leaning backwards, he placed his hands behind his head and looked up at his wall thoughtfully. The drawings that were pinned to it were so numerous that they all but formed their own wallpaper.

"Do you think they'll be okay?" he asked. Rika turned a page absently before answering.

"We'll be seeing them off in a couple hours. It's no big deal, Takato."

"I know, but this will be the first time we've been to the digital world in three years. Well, except for Ryo, but still…"

"And he's the one going with them. He's got a lot of experience. I should also point out that he's taking Ayaka and Miki with him, and those two have partners who are pretty familiar with the digital world too, not to mention powerful. They'll be okay."  
Takato nodded reluctantly, but she could still sense his worry. Rika eyed him for a moment before returning to the manga.

The meeting with Hypnos had progressed predictably. After Yamaki had announced that Urocyomon was overdue for a communication, he announced that a trip to the digital world was in order to investigate. As such, a team was required and chosen, consisting of Ryo Akiyama, being the most experienced Tamer of the group with a lot of versatility, Ayaka Itou and Miki Nakajima, both of whose partners, Crusadermon and Dracmon, knew the layout of the digital world well and were quite powerful in their own right, and Kenta, whose partner MarineAngemon would provide defense to protect the vulnerable human element in the event of a fight. 'Balance' was the name of the game, and a small team ensured that there would be fewer mishaps such as getting lost via the innumerable Data Streams that swept across the digital world.

_We had enough trouble with that the last two times,_ thought Rika as she again turned a page. _Still…I think Takato's right to be worried. Miki isn't exactly experienced or skilled, not to mention that her digivice is different from the rest of ours. She and Dracmon can biomerge, but they can't use cards. If they wind up in a situation where they need something like that, what are they going to do? Wish themselves out?_ Rika thought for a bit before chuckling mentally._ Come to think of it, that might actually happen. It's the digital world after all. But…I don't know. The digital world is a harsh place to be making wishes like that in. I know not all of my wishes came true when I needed them to…_ Rika looked back up at Takato thoughtfully. _…Or did they?_

Rika shrugged the thought off.

_Maybe Miki will be all right. She could use the experience, and she and Dracmon can already go Mega anyway, which is good enough for just about anything the digital world can throw at us. Now if only she would stop making mooneyes at Ryo she'd probably be fine. Ugh…_

Rika narrowed her eyes. As much as she claimed to not be interested in things like relationships, gossip, and things that her classmates often discussed with each other, even she could see what Miki's true intentions were. She had nearly cut the girl off and volunteered to go to the digital world herself just then—she knew Renamon had wanted to upon hearing that Urocyomon was missing, and she had been itching for a change of pace lately. But no. As Miki said herself, she needed the experience, and Rika felt she couldn't deny her that.

_Even if she's a little drunk on Ryo,_ she thought. _Ugh. And Mr. Perfect doesn't see it. Sometimes I just cannot believe him…_

Rika was interrupted from her thoughts as a soft knock broke the quiet of the room before Takato's door opened. Mie Matsuki poked her head in and smiled at the two teens.

"Just letting you two know that dinner is almost ready."

"Thanks, Mom."

"Thanks Mrs. Matsuki."

The Matsuki matriarch gave Rika another smile before closing the door, causing Rika to blush a little. Sensing her embarrassment, Takato chuckled.

"She likes you, you know."

"As if her pestering me to have dinner with you guys hasn't clued me in on that fact already," grumbled Rika. "I just wish…" Rika hesitated, letting her words drift off.

Takato glanced over at her, wondering why she paused.

"Wish what, Rika?"

Something wavered on Rika's side of the connection, and for a moment Takato thought she was going to close him off. The moment passed without that happening, and with a dejected sigh, Rika rolled off the bed and landed on the floor gracefully. Walking over to Takato's desk she looked at him meaningfully.

"Let's see what you've got so far," she said, pointing to the drawings he had piled next to him.

"Huh? But I haven't gotten around to inking them yet…"

"So? I'm bored, and I've seen you working hard on this for weeks now. I want to see what you've been pulling out of that thick skull of yours."

"Well…okay. But it's still pretty rough."

Handing her the pages he had done so far, Rika began to flip through them with some curiosity. She raised an eyebrow when she saw the title.

_Hazardous! Red Dinosaur Guil!_

_ Why am I not surprised?_ She thought, glancing down at the cover and seeing a character that greatly resembled Takato and his partner, Guilmon. By the looks of things, Takato seemed to be aiming towards a comedy piece. Bread was flying everywhere around the main character with the yet-uncolored dinosaur getting underfoot.

_Write what you know,_ she thought to herself. _His artwork's gotten a lot better too. It's still a little choppy, but it looks a lot less like it was drawn by a preschooler. _Rika smirked to herself. _Maybe this time he'll use color that's a lot more professional than crayons._

She went on from there, engrossing herself in the reading. In some ways, she was a little disappointed, given that some of it looked to be based on how his adventures as a Tamer began, especially with the character designs, and the comedy felt a little bit forced. For Rika though, that might have been her own personal bias. She preferred more serious stories.

"Well?" asked Takato as soon as she finished reading through the twenty pages he had done so far. Rika closed her eyes thoughtfully. She could sense his anxiety. He wanted it to be good but…

_Time for some tough love._

"Well…It's okay. Though I kind of thought it'd be something a little more…different I guess."

Takato tilted his head to one side. "What do you mean?"

"How can I put this?" she asked, more to herself than to Takato. "It just reads too much like another digimon story." Flipping through the pages she found the one she needed to make her example. "Look here. On this one you have your Guil character 'evolve' into a stronger form. That's what I'm talking about. 'Guilmon' I don't think is a bad idea, since he's actually your digimon and you created him, but I think that if you want this story to be your own, you should go in a different direction."

Takato rubbed the back of his head a little uncertainly, but nodded all the same. "Yeah. I think you're right on that. But that's why I've been getting so many manga books lately. I'm trying to find something to make the story more interesting. I've…just been kind of stuck on that bit lately."

Rika nodded. "I'll bet that all of the recent bio-emergences haven't been helping either."

"No, not really. Well, that and school." Takato leaned back in his chair again and furrowed his brow. "Feels like an excuse though…"

"Takato…can I ask you why you're drawing this stuff? I mean, you've got a job working for the government now. You're practically set for life. It involves digimon too, so it's not like it's outside of your interests either."

"I know, it's just…I've always liked drawing. I've never been too sure about what I wanted to do with my life, even after Guilmon became a part of me. And lately…I don't know."

Rika raised an eyebrow at that. "Don't know what?"

"I think I'm having some doubts as to whether or not we're doing the right thing—fighting digimon."

"Okay, did your head get disconnected when that Triceramon bulldozed you?"

"No! I mean, I know that with digimon like that we can't afford to hold back or anything. I've learned that enough times, but what about when we're dealing with digimon that come here to escape the digital world?"

"Is this about what happened with MasterTyrannomon?" asked Rika, catching a glimpse of the digimon flashing through Takato's mind as he said that. Takato nodded.

"He didn't want to go back. And I can't help but wonder about that. He asked me what gave me the right to make that choice. I mean, we let our partners stay…"

"Our partners tend to be more stable," Rika reminded. "When they showed up they didn't automatically start destroying things."

"Not all digimon have done that though."

"I know, Takato. But with the way things are right now…I don't think some people will notice the difference. Digimon without partners like Kuzuhamon can fit in because they look human and can shape shift. Not all digimon have that benefit, and sometimes they can mess things up without having to wreck things. My teacher has been teaching my class about the effects of invasive species on an established ecosystem. Digimon can pretty much outcompete anything on this planet even at the Rookie level. I don't think it would take much for things to get unbalanced pretty fast."

"Protecting the balance between the worlds," Takato murmured, though he still didn't look certain about it. Rika's expression softened as she looked at him.

"I'm sure Yamaki and his bunch would come up with better reasons though. But that's why we've got that new gateway system going on. It's so that we can send them back without having to delete them or anything. Small steps, Takato." Rika allowed herself a small smile to cross her face as she took a more optimistic stance. "Maybe one day we can see digimon and humans living together on a more regular basis. That's what we're working for, right?"

Even as Rika said that though, she had to wonder. Was that what they were working for? As far as she knew, Yamaki hadn't mentioned it. It had been something that only the Tamers and Shibumi ever spoke about, perhaps due to their rather close roles in dealing with the digital world. Yamaki seemed to share their beliefs, but to what extent?

_Yamaki changed a lot from when we first met him. The Gateway he made for us shows that, but what is his motivation now?_

As Rika pondered the thought, Takato's cell phone rang.

"Hello?" asked the teen as he picked it up. A moment later he nodded. "Okay. Roger. We'll be right there."

Hanging up he turned towards Rika.

"That was Yamaki. He said that they're ready to go."

Rika grinned.

"Yamaki, huh? So who's 'Roger'?"

Takato palmed his face.

"Ah geez…"

* * *

"Takahashi," said Yamaki as Itsuo and his remaining interviewees, Ryo Akiyama and Cyberdramon entered the room. "Did everyone selected for the team meet with your approval?"

"Beyond all of my expectations," said Itsuo, pushing his glasses onto his nose, causing Yamaki to raise an eyebrow. "To be honest, I would have liked to interview Takato Matsuki, as he is the designated leader of the group as a whole, but your mission required me to change my scheduling around a bit, and he is exempt from formal mission duties until he is recovered from his injuries. At least, that's what Ms. Ootori has told me."

"It is true," said Yamaki, making it a point to remember that Itsuo continued to be quite well informed of all situations regarding the Tamers. "However, rest assured that once the team departs you will be able to return to your original schedule."

"Thank you," Itsuo replied blandly. "The soonest I can build my own psych profiles, the faster I can make assessments for future missions of this sort."

Patting his partner on his arm, Ryo Akiyama only half listened to the two adults talk as he walked up to his teammates. Ayaka, Kenta, and Miki, with their respective partners were sitting by the wall.

"Hey guys," he said, waving one hand at them. "Ready for the trip?"

"You bet!" said Miki a little excitedly as she raised her bag up in the air. Next to her, Ayaka and Kenta both nodded, albeit with a little more reservation than their friend, and indicated their bags full of spare clothes lying on the floor next to them. Ryo was hardly surprised that they, like he, were all bringing their civilian clothing, though he had to admit that they were not quite suited for the kind of travel they were likely to do in the digital world.

_I know that things that aren't self-aware don't need to worry so much about wear and tear, but my own experiences are a bit different from theirs. I've traveled through a lot of worlds, and I wrecked nearly all of my original clothes before I met up with the Tamers. I think the only thing that lasted were my pants and shoes by then. Everything else I had replaced. I wonder if Yamaki will end up giving us more durable uniforms as time goes on._

Shrugging such thoughts aside, Ryo turned to look up at the ring-like structure suspended in the air, its hole facing down.

"So that's the Gateway thing that Yamaki told us about, huh?"

"That's it," said Kenta, stepping forward and adjusting his glasses. "That's what sends the digimon back after we've beaten them."

"I wasn't there for when it was being used so you'll have to bring me up to speed here. I take it that we just stand under it and let it work its magic?"

"In this case," said Yamaki as he approached the Tamers, "yes. However, there is an orbital version that we launched recently that enables us to pinpoint and use it on any digimon that is weak enough for its power levels to handle."

"I heard about that," said Kenta. "I read an article about a recent launch into space. They said that it was for a new satellite."

"That's the cover story," said Yamaki. "Though for all intents and purposes, that might as well be what the Gateway is."

Ryo frowned a little, not sure what he thought about that_. An orbital Gateway system that allowed for pinpointing any digimon? I wonder if that can be used against us._

Ryo was no fool. In the back of his mind was the issue regarding how the world looked at digimon and the digital world. A fair number of developed world nations looked at it with suspicion and even anxiety even as others saw it as the next great frontier for human exploration and advancement. The fact that digimon were capable of large-scale destruction of the like that had only been made available in the past century, and did with incredible ease, would not be lost on people in the right position to affect major decisions and sway public opinion.

"So how come we had to come here?" asked Ryo, deciding that now was as good a time as any to play with his cards close to the chest. "If it can be used anywhere…"

"It's not as simple as that," replied Yamaki. "Due to the distance between it and the Earth's surface, there is an increased margin for error in creating not only a portal capable of maintaining itself, but also holding itself long enough for a digimon to be transported through it and back to the digital world. Digimon that are at full strength are able to resist it, and if they're in an area that's properly shielded, even a Rookie level digimon can shrug it off without much effort. It works best when the digimon's energy has exhausted itself and it can no longer defend itself. Champions, Ultimates, and Megas are best able to resist the Gateway's effects, so unfortunately battle is still required in order to subdue them and send them back. It's not much but," Yamaki flicked his lighter open before clicking it closed, "it's a step in the right direction."

"So, we would have to be here for it to work then," said Ayaka.

"Theoretically that wouldn't be necessary as long as the digimon didn't resist, but it's a means of transportation that we would prefer to not use in public except in the most dire of emergencies."

MarineAngemon looked over at Kenta.

"Pihpihpih."

"Yeah," Kenta nodded. "It would probably cause a panic."

"All right," said Ryo. "So now that we're all set, how soon until we leave?"

"In a hurry to take off already?" asked Ayaka, grinning a little nervously. "I'll be honest, I'm still waiting for my mom to come charging in through that door, demanding that I stay right here."

"You don't have to go," supplied Yamaki, walking over to a control panel and pressing a few buttons. "This mission is entirely voluntary, and no one is forcing you to go."

"I'm not saying that I'm not going," said Ayaka, huffing a little in annoyance at the Head of Hypnos. "It's just…well, when I was first telling my mom that I was a Tamer she kinda freaked out." Ayaka's expression fell as she remembered the dreaded meeting from so long ago. "Just getting her approval for this was…pretty hard."

Kenta looked at Ayaka with concerned eyes. Noticing, the girl fidgeted a little before flashing her companions a wide grin.

"B-But given that she told me that _someone_ needs to look out for this guy here," she swept one arm dramatically over Kenta's shoulder and pulled him close to her tightly, "I know she gave me her blessings. Besides, protecting the real and digital worlds is too important to just sit on the sidelines for."

"It's just a simple search and investigate mission," commented Crusadermon as she analyzed the edge of one of her ribbons. "I hardly think that it requires that level of protection."

Ayaka scowled at her partner. "Crusadermon! This is serious!"

"This is more than just a simple investigation," said Yamaki, handing a communication device over to Ryo. "For one, you must all remember that aside from locating Urocyomon if possible, there is the issue of the human that he reported. If you encounter him, you are to bring him back here for questioning."

"So there's a chance that we're going to end up fighting him?" asked Ryo, glancing over at his ever-battle hungry partner. Cyberdramon was, surprisingly, silent on this matter, but the flexing of his claws gave away his eagerness.

"Avoid a battle if you can help it," replied Yamaki. "Your first priority is in locating Urocyomon, but we must still look into the matter of this human. If there's a Tamer out there, inciting fights with digimon then there's a good chance that digimon will not look favorably upon our world. If anything, he may be responsible for the increasing number of digimon that are arriving in our world."

"Kind of taking that theory to extremes, aren't ya?" asked Dracmon.

"At this point, I think it's safe to assume anything. The D-Reaper was a creation of humans, and its evolution and subsequent attack upon the digital world nearly started a war between us. I should point out that was unintentional on our part. Can you imagine what would result if purposeful attacks were being conducted?"

"Point taken."

"Now, we've sent out the Arc II to aid in our scanning of the digital world, but it hasn't found any more success in locating Urocyomon than our Tracers. However, with you in the field you should have little trouble in finding him. Janyu has imprinted all of your digivice's with Urocyomon's data pattern so you should be able to find him."

"What if he's been destroyed?" asked Kenta.

"Residual Digimon patterns have been known to remain in an area for a time before dispersing completely. The pattern will most likely be degraded, but it should be there. However, this is largely dependent on the amount of data a digimon has accrued over their lifetime."

No one said it, but Ryo had a gut feeling that as far as Urocyomon was concerned, that didn't leave very good odds. The Rookie level was roughly equivalent to a human in terms power, and could be more so in other cases. The data for digimon lower than Champion and above was low, and on top of that, in the digital world, loose data was akin to a free meal. Few digimon would ever pass it up.

As the thought ran through everyone's mind the main entrance to the Gateway opened up, and in walked the rest of the Tamers group, with the sole exception of Jeri, flanked by their partners and by Hypnos agents. Ryo and his companions grinned upon seeing them.

"Going to see us off?" the Legendary Tamer asked.

"What kind of friends would we be if we didn't at least do that?" asked Takato humorously. Next to him, Rika _hmmmphed._

"What can I say? It's always a pleasure just to say goodbye to you."

"Nice to know that you feel good about me about _something,"_ Ryo chuckled. "Could you tell Jeri that I said I'll see her when I get back?"

Rika looked at Ryo with a contemplative look on her face before nodding solemnly. "Yeah. I'll do that."

"Hey, Kenta!" exclaimed Kazu with a little bit of indignation in his voice. The brown haired boy shook one fist at his bespectacled friend as he marched up to him. "You take care of Ryo out there—though I doubt he really needs the help—and take care of your girlfriend too. This is the time for you to man up, you hear me? Sweep her off her feet or something…although she probably weighs a little too much for you to do that without falling down…"

"Kazuuu…" Ayaka growled, pushing the teen away from her boyfriend. "Can't you just say goodbye like a normal person?!"

"Yeah, yeah. Catch ya later…sheesh. Anyway Kenta. My point is, don't lose out to Crusadermon in the rescuing business!"

"Uh…right," said Kenta, scratching the side of his head and cocking an eyebrow at Crusadermon worriedly. Although the Royal Knight had no visible eyeholes on her helm, he got the distinct feeling that she was watching him carefully.

"All right," said Yamaki. "It's time to get going. We have a visual of the targeted location that you'll be arriving in. It is free of any nearby digimon and anomalies. If you would step beneath the Gateway…"

Nodding, the four Tamers and their digimon gathered up their things and walked beneath the Gateway Ring. After a moment, Yamaki nodded to one of the technicians who began pressing dials. Electric blue light surrounded the ring and small needles extended themselves from its surface. The light fell downwards, encompassing the Tamers as they steeled themselves for transportation.

"Be careful," was Yamaki's final words to them as they began to disappear.

"We will," replied Ryo. With one bright flash of blue light, they disappeared, heading off towards the digital world.

* * *

A/N: I have to admit, I found it a little hard to justify not having the three core Tamers going off to the digital world, even with Takato being injured. After all, they are among the most experienced and strongest with dealing with the digital world, and Yamaki has worked with them the longest. However, logically it seemed to make sense given that the Tamers are now officially organized, thus altering how they would be utilized for specific missions. In the case of this mission, as ideally it's meant to be a short trip, throwing in the best didn't seem like the best choice when something could go wrong at home (as Murphy's Law often demands when it comes to Tamer). Ryo would be a better choice for exploring the digital world anyway due to his having lived there the longest when he was fourteen (never mind that the Tamers regularly got lost on their first trip, and they haven't been back since Less than Human), so he knows quite a bit about the ins and outs of traveling it. Crusadermon and Dracmon fit into that to, so they would naturally be part of the package, though due to Miki's inexperience just Crusadermon would do. However, after three years, even the most inexperienced of them would have found ways to round out their abilities to compensate for their shortcomings, provided that they were motivated enough for it.

Primarily, I wanted to work with some of the side characters that have been more background in this fic than I would have liked. Miki is a part of the overall plot, so her interaction with Ryo is going to be key in its progression, and Kenta works for the reasons given in the chapter. A powerful defense for when things go wrong. Also, I wanted to have some time to peek into his relationship with Ayaka, and his own thoughts on it.

The bit with Takato at the beginning is mostly further character exploration. I've found that as we grow older and our minds expand more we begin to question some of the beliefs and motives that at first held to us like glue. For most of Tamers, bio-emerged digimon were generally a no-no as far as living in the real world goes, or at least it was an unspoken rule. Takato pondered this early on in the series during a fight with DarkLizardmon when, after defeating it, he found that he had no real idea what to do since he hadn't deleted it. Yamaki snatched it up before he could work it out, and the Deva attacks showed up shortly thereafter, turning it into a bloody 'kill-or-be-killed' scenario. Things have changed since then, and they're working on ways to make it so that's not always the case, but even so, one can't help but wonder about some things. So that's going to be a part of his character evolution.

Well, until next chapter then.

-Crazyeight

* * *

8


	10. Jeri

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.

Revival

Chapter: 10/ Jeri

Wind swept across the desert plain, blowing up some sand where it spun in the air for a moment as a dust devil before falling back down to the ground. A blue ring materialized in the air where the dust devil settled, and one second and a flash of light later four humans and four digimon fell onto the ground with a cry of surprise.

"Ugh…" groaned Miki, her voice muffled as she lay face down on the ground.

"You okay?" asked Dracmon, poking at her head with one claw. Pushing herself up, the girl nodded and brushed her hair out of her eyes.

"Yeah…where are we?"

"The digital world," deadpanned Dracmon. "Where else would we be? That's where we were going, remember?"

Miki stuck her tongue out at her partner and scowled. "Helpful as ever, Beanie. Could you be more specific?"

"We are on the desert plain of the digital world," spoke up Crusadermon as she helped Ayaka get to her feet. "More precisely we're on the surface level. The data here is sparse for the most part…little more than a great jumble of material that has little meaning, rhyme, or rhythm to it. One could almost call it the digital world's junkyard."

"I got that from the last time we were here," replied Miki, blowing at her hair and trying to clean out the sand that had gotten into it.

"Then why ask meaningless questions to which you already know the answer?"

Miki scowled at the Royal Knight, feeling a flash of anger inside her.

"Hey! I just wanted to know, all right? I don't know much about the digital world, and the stupid show doesn't help any! For all I know there might be more than one desert!"

"There are," replied Crusadermon calmly. "But it wouldn't look like this."

Miki bent her head to the side, wondering just what she meant by that. Before she could say anything more, Ryo spoke up.

"Okay guys, enough of that. The last thing we need is to start an argument before we even get this mission under way. Now let's see…" Taking out his blue and gold D-Arc, the Legendary Tamer activated the scanning function. A holographic circle materialized above his digivice's screen, showing a compass that swiveled around wildly. Pressing the D-Arc's button a few times, Ryo changed the circle to show a map of their surroundings.

"It looks like we're a little bit off course," he mused. Kenta walked over to him, raising an eyebrow.

"What makes you say that?"

"I was the only one these past few years to come here, remember?" replied Ryo. "Yamaki had Shibumi upload a program into my digivice so that I could do some mapping while I was gone. Remember when Yamaki had Henry's dad take our digivices for a bit after we figured out who was going? He linked them up to the Hypnos network to provide us with telemetry data to help us find our way around. A lot of it's been updated." Pressing the button again, Ryo expanded the holographic circle and pointed to a mass of blue and red dots surrounded by a dissipating yellow circle. A short ways off to the side was a green dot.

"That's us. I'm guessing the yellow circle is supposed to be the effects of the Gateway. And this…" he pointed to the green dot. "…is where we were supposed to come out at." Ryo frowned. "I guess the teleportation thing doesn't have all the bugs worked out of it yet. I'm glad we didn't appear over a canyon."

"Most of us are capable of flying," pointed out Crusadermon, placing one hand on her hip. "It's hardly anything we need to be worrying about."

"Um…Beanie can't fly," said Miki, raising a hand. Dracmon shifted uncomfortably.

"…Really wish you wouldn't call me that. I say it over and over…"

"We'll have to keep that in mind," said Ryo, ignoring the imp digimon's complaints to keep everyone's mind focused on the mission at hand. "For now, let's see if we can find Urocyomon."

"Um…question?" asked Miki.

"Yeah?"

"How can you be so sure that the green dot isn't Urocyomon? I mean, we're looking for him specifically, and Mr. Wong also gave us his specific…uh…data patterns, right?"

"The digivice is pretty specific about this sort of thing," chuckled Ryo. "Or as Terriermon would put it, it's color coded for our convenience. Human partners are blue, digimon are red. And the last time I was here, this color was used when they sent the Arc to pick me up."

"Oh…" Miki's expression fell. She wanted to kick herself for asking such a stupid sounding question.

"So, how do we go about finding Urocyomon?" asked Kenta, taking out his digivice and activating his own scanning function. "The digital world is a big place and our digivices are kind of limited with their range. There've been days where Wild Ones have bio-emerged and no one noticed because they were too far away."

"I think that's what the second Arc is for," mused Ryo. "It might be working as a signal booster. That's what Yamaki was doing when he first tried to find Urocyomon. So…maybe…"

Returning to the compass, Ryo noticed that it was now pointing directly behind him. Turning, Ryo followed its direction with his eyes. Nothing but barren landscape greeted him. He changed back to the map function and looked it over thoughtfully.

_There is a canyon area not too far from here, _he thought. After some careful consideration he pulled out a card and passed it over to Kenta.

"All right. Kenta, use this speed card. MarineAngemon isn't very fast, so you'll need to keep up."

"Hey! I have a speed card!"

"Yeah, but not many, right? I've got plenty of spares. In fact… MarineAngemon, can you shield us for a moment?"

"Pih," the pink fairy nodded before blowing out a pink heart that grew and encapsulated the group. Pulling out his cards, Ryo fanned them out on the floor of the bubble. He looked up at Ayaka and Kenta, indicating that they do so as well.

"Cards are going to be important for our stay here," he said after they had done so. "All of us can become, or are already at the Mega level, but we're bound to wind up in situations where we need less power and something more like a tool, or an edge. We should divide what we have between us so that we have an even split, this way so no one is lacking."

"Um…that might be problematic," admitted Ayaka.

Ryo raised an eyebrow.

"It's because Ayaka and I have…built our decks around supporting each other," admitted Kenta, blushing a little. Don't ask. It was her idea…"

"Hey! You thought it was a good idea too! I figured that as long as we were—you know—going out, we might as well fit together in a fight too!"

"I wasn't saying that it was bad Ayaka…"

Ryo chuckled a little and picked up some cards.

"Either way, you should still have something a little extra in case something comes up where you can't work together. Trust me, it's not a good idea to rely too much on something specialized unless you have plenty of tricks to make up for it." Scanning briefly at the cards his two friends had out Ryo continued. "And it doesn't look like you two have much to fall back on."

"We only decided this recently," said Ayaka, scratching the side of her head with an embarrassed look. "But we thought that with these cards we could come up with something good."

"At least these cards work with our digivices," mused Ryo, looking them over. They weren't the same design as the ones that he and the core Tamers were used to using, being of the latest version—or rather the third reiteration. It had come out three years ago, roughly around the same time that Guilmon had been destroyed and reborn. The rules were of course different, and when the version became more prolific than the first two, Ryo, like the others, was admittedly worried whether or not they would function properly with their D-Arcs. Their worries were dashed fortunately, as familiar cards applied the same effects, items could still be used without worry, and all cards across the three digimon games could be used.

_Given that with the original game we could use cards like WarGreymon's shield without having to actually use its effect, I don't see why I even worried in the first place. _Ryo glanced down at his D-Arc. _These things are weird in what they effects they decide to use and what they toss out the window. But I'm glad that we didn't lose this edge even if we don't need them as much anymore._

Quickly dividing the cards as best as they could, Ryo pocketed his deck and returned his attention to his D-Arc.

"Kenta, can you have Miki and Dracmon ride shotgun with you and follow me?"

"Sure," nodded the bespectacled boy.

"Okay. Ready Cyberdramon?"

With a guttural growl as a reply, Ryo pulled himself onto his partner's shoulder in one smooth motion. As soon as he was settled, Cyberdramon leapt into the air, spreading his wings. Kenta watched him go with a look of sincere admiration.

"Wow…"

Ayaka shook her head, looking at her boyfriend with an expression of amusement.

"Why can't you ever look at _me_ like that, Kenta?"

"Uh…huh?"

* * *

"So…um…Ayaka?"

The blonde haired girl turned towards Miki. "Yeah?"

"I was wondering…what do you see in Kenta?"

Ayaka blinked at the question and glanced over at Kenta, who was barely a foot away. She grinned.

"I'd say, but he'd turn into a tomato."

"Ah! W-Would not!"

"Kentaaa…" Ayaka wagged a finger at him. "Girl talk over here."

Kenta sighed. "R-Right. 'It's the invisible barrier that I can't hear through…'"

"Sorry. I'll make it up to you later. I promise" Ayaka gave him an apologetic smile, and Kenta gave her an understanding one in return. Not for the first time Miki found herself feeling jealous of the relationship the two had. The two shared much together, and it wasn't often that Ayaka cut him out of something—that is to say practically never, although 'girl talk' was one of the few times that a boundary was drawn between them.

_Even then I doubt it stays a secret for very long,_ thought Miki as Ayaka returned her attention to her.

"So what's with the question?" she asked. "You've asked me it a lot before, but not for a while. I don't think my answer has changed since then…well, except in a few cases." Upon saying that Ayaka sent Kenta a look who's meaning Miki could only guess at. Looking over at Kenta, the boy fidgeted a bit, his eyes darting this way and that.

_These two can be so weird sometimes…_

"I just wanted to talk about something, that's all. It's going to be a while before we get to where Ryo's going. Have you talked to Jeri lately?"

"Kind of jumping around, aren't you?" asked Ayaka, raising an eyebrow at the girl before shrugging. "We talk at least once a night if we can manage, and I try to see her once a week. It's not easy on my finances though, having to commute by train to visit her. You should get out sometime and see her."

Miki nodded carefully, though she had to admit to feeling uncertain. She did see her every now and then, though not as often as Ayaka did. She just felt…uncomfortable for some reason.

Her eyes drifted over towards the direction of Cyberdramon and became rooted on the Legendary Tamer sitting on his shoulder.

All at once, Miki became very,_ very_ aware that she was riding in a heart bubble while staring at the older teen. Scrunching her shoulders together, Miki allowed her hair to fall over her face, hiding the blush that rapidly rose to the surface of her cheeks.

"Hey, Miki?" asked Ayaka, causing her to try and hide herself even further. "Are you all right? You're all red for some reason."

"We're in a pink heart that diffuses light," said Dracmon. "How can you tell what color she's turning besides pink?"

"Look here _Beanie,"_ Ayaka grated, glowering at the diminutive imp who stared back at her, completely unimpressed.

"Don't you _Beanie_ me, Itou. You think I'm going to be scared by a bad case of PMS or whatever it is you humans call it? If you do, then you've got another thing comin'…"

"C'mon you guys," pleaded Kenta. "Don't make a scene. You might burst the bubble…"

"Pihpihpih?" asked MarineAngemon, raising an eyebrow at his partner. Ayaka did likewise.

"He's right, Kenta. How can a bubble that holds off _Mega_ level attacks be disturbed by a little argument?"

Kenta's shoulders slumped while Dracmon laughed and pointed a finger at him. "Seems to me she understands your partner better than you!"

As the argument resumed at its full pace, Miki turned her gaze back towards Ryo, listening to the steadily increasing beat of her heart in her chest.

* * *

Takato, Guilmon, and Rika got off the train, ignoring the throng of people that parted to give them—or rather Guilmon—room.

"It'll be fun to see Jeri again," said Guilmon happily, tossing his claws into the air exuberantly. "It's been so long since we last hung out with her."

"Guilmon, we saw her yesterday," smiled Takato. Guilmon looked at his partner as though he had lost all sense of time.

"Yeah, but that's still so long. We don't see her everyday like we used to anymore."

"Well, I can't argue with your logic there," agreed Takato. "It's been hard seeing her ever since she moved, even if it was one ward over. We didn't even get to hang out with her after the meeting with Yamaki ended."

"That's not good at all, Takato. If we're her friends we should be seeing her every day! Right Rika?"

"Hm? Oh. Yeah. Well…maybe not _every day_ but we should make an effort to see her more."

Rika turned away, a distant look on her face. Takato watched her for a moment before speaking.

"Are you all right?"

"I'm just thinking, that's all. It'll be good to see her again."

"I'll say," replied Takato, smiling a little more easily now. "You always used to tell me that you'd never forgive me if I fell out of contact with her…"

Rika smirked. "Not like I needed to threaten you over it. You've never let a little thing like distance, or dimensions for that matter, get between you and your friends. You're as stubborn as they come."

"It comes with the goggles," chuckled Takato, pushing them up a little on his head. Rika rolled her eyes.

"You do know how ridiculous you look in those, right?"

"Hey! You gave me these!"

"Yeah, but if you still had your old ones, you'd be wearing those."

"…Point taken." With another chuckle Takato pulled off the goggles and pushed them into his pants pocket. Rika raised an eyebrow at him.

"What're you doing?"

"I figured that you didn't want to be embarrassed, so I took them off."

Rika rolled her eyes. "I'm not shallow, Takato. I don't care if you have them on or off. Well, at least until you turn eighteen…_then_ you'll probably need to rethink your choice of personal style. Either way, you're still a Gogglehead. Having the goggles on only makes it more obvious."

"Oookay." Takato scratched the side of his head. Sensing his confusion, Rika snorted.

"Takato. Let me put it to you this way: if the team's Gogglehead doesn't have his goggles on, then the team's in trouble. In fact, I'd say it's grounds for an apocalypse."

"Kazu and Terriermon say the same thing about you during your 'special week'," commented Guilmon, sniffing at the ground. Rika narrowed her eyes dangerously.

"I'll have to have a talk with those two about that."

"Uh…right," said Takato, pushing Rika onwards over her protests. "Moving on…and away from potential hospital visits…"

"Hey! No! I only want to 'talk' to them! Hey! _Takato!_ Quit pushing already, would ya?"

* * *

The doorbell rang throughout the house as Mrs. Katou made her way towards the front entrance.

"Coming," she sang in an almost nursery rhyme manner as she laid one hand on the doorknob. Behind the door she could hear a boy's voice scolding someone.

"Guilmon…I told you to not play with the doorbell…"

"Ohhh…I'm sorry."

"I'm starting to think we need to put him on a leash…"

"Rika…"

Smiling, Mrs. Katou quickly guessed who was behind the door, and upon opening was rewarded by the sight of two Tamers and a digimon standing in front of her.

"Hello," Mrs. Katou said cheerfully. "It's so nice to see you."

"Hi, Mrs. Katou," said Takato, bowing in time with Rika and Guilmon respectfully to Jeri's stepmother. Mrs. Katou chuckled.

"You three…I've told you before that you should call me Shizue."

"Sorry…ma'am," replied Takato, trying to settle for a polite compromise. Rika elbowed him.

"Don't mind him, he's a little old fashioned."

"I don't mind," replied Shizue, her smile growing a little. "It's nice to see a boy his age being polite. Some teenagers these days…well…they've become something of a rarity."

"I'll admit that it's one of his good points," Rika grinned. "Is Jeri home?"

"Yes. If you don't mind coming in, I'll go get her for you. I believe she's in the kitchen with her father."

Stepping aside, Shizue let the trio in, Takato taking a moment to remind Guilmon to be on his best behavior, and after leaving them in the living room went off to find her wayward daughter. They didn't have to wait long.

"Rika!" exclaimed the young girl as she entered the room. Wasting no time she raced over to her friend and all but bowled her over throwing herself into her arms. Rika grunted as she was nearly knocked over.

"Nice to see you too," Rika grinned, patting her awkwardly on the back. Jeri giggled.

"It's always good to see you guys." Pulling away, Jeri wiped one eye and looked over at Takato. "Hey…"

"Hey Jeri."

The two looked at each other with a wistful expression on their faces, and for a moment Rika felt slightly uncomfortable, as though she were intruding on something. However the moment quickly passed as Guilmon pushed himself forward.

"Hey! What about me?"

"Oh, Guilmon…" Jeri let go of Rika and wrapped her arms around the crimson dinosaur, pulling him close to her. Laughing happily, Guilmon did likewise.

"So…what did you guys come here to tell me?" Jeri asked, looking up over Guilmon's shoulder.

"W-What makes you think that we came here to tell you something?" asked Takato, rubbing the back of his head. Jeri wagged a finger at him as though he were a naughty child that needed scolding.

"Ta-ka-to…"

"Sorry," he coughed. "Ryo wanted us to tell you that he's heading off to the digital world to find Urocyomon. Miki, Kenta, and Ayaka are going with him."

"I see." Jeri pulled away from Guilmon and closed her eyes for a moment, taking in the news.

"It-It was rather last minute," continued Takato, hoping that he didn't make her upset. "You know how Yamaki's been worried about Urocyomon, and Ryo knows the digital world better than any of us…"

"It's okay," said Jeri, opening her eyes. "Really. I know that I haven't been a part of the loop much since moving, so I kind of expect things like this to happen. I just…" Jeri drifted off briefly before continuing. "Well, never mind. What about you two? I haven't had a chance to sit down and talk to you in a while. How is your training going?"

Takato hesitated, wondering if he should try to pursue the earlier topic or change it to the one that Jeri wanted. Before he could come to a decision, Rika placed one hand over his.

_"Just go with it…"_ he heard Rika speak within his mind.

"Well…Rika has me kissing the dirt a lot when we practice."

Jeri turned towards Rika with a smirk on her face and a devilish glint in her eyes.

"Oh? I thought she would rather have you kissing _her…"_

_ "Jeri!"_ exclaimed an incensed Rika Nonaka while a sharp blush crossed Takato's features.

* * *

Takato, Rika, and Guilmon waved at Jeri as they left the house, bidding her goodbye before turning their full attention on the course towards home.

"I thought that went well," mused Takato, placing his hands behind his head. "It was good to see her again."

"I know," crowed Guilmon, clapping his claws together. "We should see her a _lot_ more often!"

"Yeah…" added Rika, a thoughtful expression on her face.

"Is something wrong, Rika?"

"No. I was just thinking about how glad I am that she's got Ryo out here to keep her company. It can't exactly be easy when all of your closest friends live in a different district. I know it's not much when you've got the train, but that's still quite the commute for anyone. I really ought to let up on him. Ryo's not exactly a bad guy."

Takato smiled. "You're probably going to hit me for this but…like Terriermon says, 'it's about time.'"

Rika turned a glare at the teen. "You're quoting Terriermon on me now?"

"Well, since you were admitting that Ryo wasn't a bad person I thought I'd make the night a little stranger. Besides, Henry's always saying about how Terriermon makes for a good philosopher."

"If annoying people counts as one," grumbled Rika, crossing her arms. "And that was almost worth hitting you for. But it's just too bad…"

Rika let her words drift off with a sigh, leaving Takato to wonder if she was going to say more or if she was done. While he waited he looked up at the sky. The sun was setting beneath the horizon now, setting off brilliant gold and red fires in the sky.

_Jeri…_

Takato sighed mentally, kicking himself for a dope.

_Things are different now,_ he thought as he, Rika, and Guilmon continued down the streets side by side. The thought both calmed him and alarmed him at the same time. He wondered briefly how long he was going to be held captive by the past. In his heart of hearts he knew that he still liked Jeri—his father often told him that first love was the kind that left its mark on a person, never leaving them for as long as he lived, but there were times where he felt guilty for continuing to feel those old emotions.

_Three years is a long time…and to still feel that way after it all…?_ Takato glanced out of one eye at Rika. _And the worst part about it is, I feel the same way for Rika as well. I know that I can't let myself be torn in two like this but…sometimes I can't help it. Rika, Kazu, and Henry are right. I'm pretty wishy-washy at times like this, and it's my bad point. I really need to figure out what I should do, but…I really don't know half the time. My heart and mind are always going in different directions and I worry too much about…well, everything. Digimon, my future, my parents…heck. I even worry about Ms. Asagi even though she's not my teacher anymore. I really need to do something about that…_

As though heaven itself at long last took pity on the boy, the feint beginnings of an answer revealed itself to him. In the sound of Guilmon's stomach growling.

"…Disgusting Guilmon," said Rika in a deadpan voice.

"Takatooo…I'm hungry…" the crimson dinosaur whined. "Can't we find something to eat now?"

"Can't you wait until we get home?" asked Takato, hoping to stave off his partner's voracious appetite. Guilmon rapidly shook his head, his golden eyes looking desperate.

"I wanted to, but the smell of all the food that Jeri's mom was making was making me hungry, and we left your house before we could eat dinner…"

Guilmon pouted heavily while Rika chuckled quietly to herself.

"He's your digimon," she said, folding her arms beneath her breasts.

"And I wouldn't have him any other way," smiled Takato. He turned towards Rika, a question already forming in his mind. He hesitated a little, but quickly decided to take a jump. It was time for him to stop hesitating.

"Hey…Rika?"

"Yeah?"

"W-Would you like to go find a place to eat?"

Rika tilted her head to the side, a slightly annoyed expression on her face. "He's your digimon, Gogglehead. And to be honest…I want to go home now."

"Ah…" Takato blinked, a little perplexed. _Did I just…?_ Takato blinked again, running the thought through his head before relenting. "…All right." Takato looked at his friend apologetically. "Sorry buddy."

Sometimes even the heavens must wish the best of luck upon mere mortals.

* * *

Jeri stood in front of the bathroom mirror, brushing her hair. She had finished her bath scant minutes ago and was now drying herself off. Pulling self-consciously on her bathrobe, she returned her attention to her hair, watching her movements in the mirror.

_I hope everything goes all right for them,_ she thought to herself. _Ryo's been at this for a long time now…longer than any of us. I'm sure that he'll help everyone get through all right._

Jeri paused in her ministrations, frowning a little at herself.

_I'm going to have to work harder so that I can be a part of them again. I don't want to be just on the sidelines. Ever since the digimon came back I've had a hard time feeling comfortable being by their side. Sometimes I felt as though I were in the way. I know that I haven't but…sometimes I just couldn't help myself since I couldn't do anything. Sometimes I still feel that way, but when I do I remember that there are some things that I can do. It's just…times like this that can be so hard. The waiting._

Tightening her grip around her brush she resumed smoothing out her hair.

_ I've got to work on my strengths… Make it so that I can help the others more than I do now. Even if I can't fight anymore, I can still help. I'm a Tamer after all, and I'll always be one._

As she brushed, she noticed a peculiar change in her eyes. Yellow surrounded red irises. Sighing, Jeri put down her brush and shook her head.

"Not now, please."

At the command the yellow and crimson disappeared, replaced by her usual, amber eye color. Jeri smiled.

"Sorry," she whispered to herself. "It's just…not now."

A low knock echoed in the silence of the bathroom. Looking around with a raised eyebrow, Jeri's eyes fell upon the bathroom window. Walking over to it, Jeri pushed it open and gave a yelp of surprise as an excitable, white colored, creampuff of a digimon launched itself at her and attached itself to her chest.

"Calumon!"

"Hey, Jeri-Jeri!" Calumon exclaimed happily, looking up at her. "You wouldn't _believe_ all the fun I had today! I…" Calumon paused and looked down. "Oooh…bouncy…"

Jeri's face burned bright red and she pulled the In-Training digimon off her, holding him away at arm's length while giving him a harsh scowl.

"Calumon…" she said, clearing her throat. "What have I told you about coming home before dark?"

"Ohhh…but Jeri! I've played out at night lots and lots of times! Why do I have to stop having fun at night? That's mean!"

"It's for your own good, Calumon! We're—_I'm_ accountable for knowing where you go! You can't go to schools and drawing chalk lines like you used to."

"But the last time was Vilemon's fault…"

"No…the _last_ time was because of a Doggymon. I seem to recall that there were more holes _and_ the shed was destroyed that time—worse than when you were showing up at my elementary school. Ryo even had to do cleanup duty then…"

"Okay," Calumon mumbled. "I'm sorry. I'll be back on time from now on…"

"Sorry Calumon," said Jeri, her expression softening. "But we all worry about you from time to time. It's not that I don't think that you can handle yourself…" Jeri giggled. "After all, you were escaping all sorts of trouble ever since we first found you."

"And before that!" Calumon laughed. Squirming in the girl's arms, Calumon broke free and settled down on her head. "So what did I miss?"

"Ohhh…just Takato, Rika, Renamon, and Guilmon. They stopped by earlier to let me know that some of the others were going to the digital world for a while."

"Really! Ohhh…now I should have come home early! I could have had so much fun with Guilmon… How were they doing?"

"They seem to be fine." Jeri smiled and closed up the window. "Rika says Renamon is learning about jokes…"

* * *

A/N: Finally a little bit more stuff involving Jeri, who aside from one scene has been largely absent in this story, which is kind of depressing since I have her slated to play a role in its progression. Not too much else to say otherwise, except that the earlier mention of the card game was because of a scene earlier in Less than Human (the 'Rika's Confession' chapter if I'm not mistaken) used a scene where Rika and Jeri were playing the card game, but some of the rules used were than the ones that I've found for the two versions (that's right, two) of the card game. In addition, I wanted something that would be a little more understandable for me in terms of deployment and usage since I'm having trouble finding out much about the game that's portrayed solely in Tamers and how a fair number of the cards operate. Found most of them in Japanese though, and Megchan's work provides some translations, but I still have trouble making heads or tails of it. I'm working them out, but the new version should give me some leeway to work with. However, given that I ended up designing the new set of rules from scratch way back then, I'm left wondering if I ended up causing more work for myself. Heh. It was still fun though. :P

'Til next time then.

-Crazyeight

* * *

10


	11. Dealings in the Night

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.

Revival

Chapter: 11/ Dealings in the Night

Prometheus floated in the air outside an apartment complex, his eyes thoughtful. Violet, flame-like patterns flashed across his right arm.

"It'll be risky," he mused to himself. "But for this to proceed, I have to take risks." Squaring his shoulders, he closed his eyes. "Branch. Limb 9."

_"…Yes?"_ came a voice from within his mind. Prometheus smiled.

"Glad to hear from you again, Norn," he said, though his tone had a regretful tinge to it. "How are things in the digital world?"

_"Things are progressing as you have predicted. However there is some unusual activity from the Dark Area that I feel needs investigating. I believe it might be related to our…"_

"Override," Prometheus interrupted, tapping one of the flames on his arms. It glowed brightly for a moment before dimming. "Let the disturbance be for now. I've already factored it into my calculations. I want _his_ attention to be drawn here."

_"…Understood,"_ said Norn on the other end. Prometheus frowned. Had he caught a small slip of hesitation in her tone?

_Even though I've reprogrammed Norn, the Heart of Yggdrasil, she remains an unknown in the grand scheme of things. Ryo Akiyama's presence in the digital world is potentially dangerous due to his partner's abilities and his own relation with Yggdrasil…or ENIAC as she was known at the time. Norn's own personal evolution has gone beyond everything predicted about her. If she should encounter the Tamers…_

Prometheus shook his head. It would be a problem, of that he had no doubt, but it wasn't as though he didn't have a backup plan in case he needed it.

_Albeit one with significantly more hazards, but a backup plan nonetheless. I'll just have to work on her._

_ "Prometheus…?"_ came Norn's voice, startling him a little.

"Yes?" he asked, snapping back to attention.

_"What are your orders? You did call to give me some, correct?"_

Prometheus chuckled and shook his head, berating himself for having become distracted so easily by his worries.

_But then, that's what I like about this form. The chance to be just like them…even if it's just a close approximation._

"Yes. Of course. I require a bio-emergence. Low level, and masked if you would, outside the range of the Tamers digivices detection capabilities. I'm sending you the details now." He tapped a couple more flame patterns on his arm, where they flared brightly before dimming.

_"Acknowledged,"_ replied Norn. _"Scanning digital world for the appropriate match and activating portal capabilities."_ A pause. _"There's a chance that Hypnos' tracking methods will detect the breach. Even if the digimon emerges outside of the Tamers' range…"_

"Don't worry. It's covered. Where is the bio-emergence's projected location?

_"It will breach in the Shinjuku flood tunnel. It has a weak dimensional barrier, and has appropriate shielding from most detection equipment."_

"While remaining close for my purposes," Prometheus nodded in approval. "Excellent. My hat's off to you Norn."

_"Thank you…sir."_

Prometheus' left eye twitched. There was that hesitation again.

_I wonder…could she be fighting the code I placed in her?_

He thought back to when he and Maelstrom fought her. It had been a relatively simple affair, as she was outside of her body armor at the time, but her change in appearance and demeanor disturbed him. Her change remained an X-Factor that he could not fully account for.

_Can I afford to risk creating my second option? She's even riskier, and I don't have the full data on her as yet._ Prometheus sighed._ Even so, if Norn escapes my programming, I'll have little choice remaining. The project must be completed after all._

"Continue monitoring the disturbance," Prometheus said finally. "Keep me informed on the Dark Areas activities regarding it. I want to know if anything else comes through that hasn't already."

_"Yes sir."

* * *

_

Thick mist billowed out of the entrance to the Shinjuku flood tunnel as Prometheus walked towards it. He eyed it with a mixture of curiosity and guardedness as the tendrils of mist curled around each other.

"So," he said, coming to a stop in front of the chain link fence that separated him from the digital field. "Are you going to come out or am I going to have to come in?"

Nothing more than fog flexing in the dark tunnel answered him, and with a dejected sigh, Prometheus shook his head and took a step forward. Space warped and rippled around him as he moved through the fence and into the fog.

"Come on now," he said. "You have no reason to hide from me. I have a job for you."

A dark shape twisted in the fog behind him. Raising one arm, he snapped his fingers. The fog dispersed as though on command, and turning he came face to face with a small, brown furred creature with a metal crest covering the top of its head. Two, small tusks protruded from its mouth like an elephants, and mists swirled around where its hind legs should have been. Prometheus looked the creature over with an approving nod.

_Perfect. No holy ring on a front foot. That makes things easier on me._

"Bakumon," Prometheus said finally. "I trust that your journey was met with no difficulty?"

"Who are you?" the diminutive creature snarled, backing away from him.

"That is not your concern."

"The Dark Area it is! I was flying through the digital world, and the next thing I know I'm snatched out of the sky by a giant hole, and end up…" Bakumon took a look around him, glaring at his surroundings. "…Wherever _here_ is…"

"It's the human world," Prometheus supplied. That caught Bakumon's attention.

"The _human_ world? You're kidding!"

"Afraid not," said Prometheus, smiling a little. "This is the human world. Shinjuku, Japan to be more precise, though not that the location matters to you. This is your first time being here, if I'm not mistaken, correct?"

"What's it to you?"

"Nothing." Prometheus stuffed his hands into his pants pockets, tilting back a little on his feet, his smile widening, but only in his mind where no one could see. "I was wondering if you could help me with something, and in return I might be able to help you with something too."

"I'm supposed to trust you?" asked Bakumon suspiciously. "What's going on?"

Prometheus rolled his eyes to one side, appearing almost thoughtful and at the same time disappointed.

"And here I was going to help you make yourself a home here…evolve. Why's it matter to you what's going on? I scratch your back and you scratch mine. What more do you need to know than that?"

Bakumon's eyes narrowed suspiciously.

"I get snatched out of the digital world, get dropped off in the human world right in front of you, and suddenly you offer me a job offer clear out of the blue. I'd say that's grounds for asking questions."

"Indeed," Prometheus stabbed one finger in Bakumon's direction, grinning a little. "And _rightfully_ so. I can assure you that my reasons for doing so are with the best of intentions…"

"I don't care about the 'best of intentions'," growled Bakumon, glaring at the human. "I'd rather know what your intentions _are._ You seem to be behind whatever's going on and I want to know _why!"_

Prometheus folded his hands together and popped his knuckles.

"Easily done. I wish to conduct an experiment with a particular human in this city. Your species is good at the sort of thing that I wish to do—which involves dealing with a humans dreams."

Bakumon snarled. "You didn't bother bringing one of the Tapirmon instead?"

"You fit the parameters better. No holy ring. I cannot just lift a guardian of Destiny Stones or angelic servants you know. The four Sovereigns may be gone, but there are forces that will not abide their servants suddenly up and abandoning their posts. I'm one of them."

"I figured." Bakumon looked Prometheus over. "You're not human."

"You've met one then?"

"No. But you feel a lot like a digimon." Bakumon looked as though he were about to say something more, but decided to hold his council. Again, Prometheus nodded silent approval.

_This one is very observant,_ he thought to himself.

"Care to know the details of the job, or should I go looking for a more amiable partner to work with?"

Bakumon looked at Prometheus closely, carefully weighing his options. Prometheus couldn't blame him. A stranger summoning him directly from the digital world, offering him a job that promised benefits and fulfillment of wishes. A good deal all around, but deals like that were often open to suspect. The digital world offered them too many others before, and some had been brought low because of that. The legends of the seven digimon known simply as the _Great Demon Lords_ were evidence enough of that, and if more were needed…well, there was always the _Dark Area._

_ Funny how the idea of Hell and the seductions of darkness remain the same no matter the world or culture one goes to,_ thought Prometheus. _Even my people shared a similar concept once upon a time…_

Prometheus and Bakumon locked eyes, the latter gauging the former. A thousand questions ran behind the digimon's eyes, all wondering whether this 'job' was worth it.

"…What are the details?" asked Bakumon finally. Prometheus smiled.

* * *

Bakumon floated down in front of the apartment complex with Prometheus hovering behind him. Violet flames again patterned his arms, causing the digimon to look at him curiously.

"So…just her?" he asked, deciding not to comment on Prometheus' abilities. Prometheus nodded.

"For now…depending on whether or not you wish to remain in my services."

"There's more?"

"We'll see. For now, consider this your trial basis. We both get a little bit of what we want. After that…well, you can figure it out for yourself."

"…Fine." Bakumon looked at the apartment's window. "You said this kid was a Tamer. Won't her partner warn her that I'm here?"

Prometheus chuckled and patted the digimon on the head.

"Not as long as _I'm_ here. Remember that."

"Fine, fine…" grumbled Bakumon. "But don't pet me like that. You make me feel like a Salamon."

"Of course." Prometheus nodded. "Now, if you please…"

Bakumon nodded and closed his eyes. A wisp of mist materialized in the air in front of him and drifted towards the apartment window, seeping into a crack and into the room within. It took but a moment for images to begin swirling in his mind. The Tamer in question was a young girl, running to do battle against a violent digimon that was incredibly large. Buildings exploded around it, and it roared triumphantly. Next to the girl a gray furred rabbit digimon—a Lopmon—bounded with her, face set in determination. A blue card materialized in the girl's hand and she slid it through a pink trimmed device. Lightning crackled around it and the Lopmon grew, glowing brightly before transforming into the Deva digimon known only as Antylamon.

The proud, acrobatic, rabbit digimon rushed forward, quickly slamming one fist into the face of its rampaging opponent, downing it easily. Pride and joy flushed through the girl's mind at the easy triumph, and in the waking world it brought a smile to her sleeping face. One arm curled around her partner.

_I see,_ thought Bakumon. _Visions of glory dance through her head, yet there's a shadow that lies behind it. Let's see what we can do here then…_

**"Nightmare Syndrome…"** Bakumon intoned, and the mist he sent into the room darkened considerably. Within, the young girl furrowed her brow, as though confused by something. Her face quickly contorted into discomfort as the vision in Bakumon's mind began to twist and alter. Bakumon's front paws twitched in anticipation and he waited.

* * *

Suzie had been standing proud over her victory over the latest digimon invasion. She could not describe the degree of happiness she was feeling just then. She had defeated an incredibly powerful digimon all on her own. The others had been helpless before it, but she had come in and saved the day when no one else, not even Takato and her brother Henry, could. Not even Ryo. Maybe now she could finally…

_Ah!_ Suzie felt a jolt go through her mind just then, and the sky that had just been clearing from the smoke returned to pitch black and a nightmarish claw ripped down and crushed Antylamon beneath its weight. Antylamon screamed horribly as the claw shattered her form against the ground, causing her to break apart into thousands of shards of data that was pulled into the sky. Maniacal laughter filled the air and a massive foot emerged fell to the ground, smashing into it with such force that the earth shook beneath it. With a cry Suzie fell to the ground.

"W-W-What's going on?" asked Suzie, her heart making an attempt to leap out of her throat now. Fear was beginning to overwhelm her entire being. The creature, whatever it was, surged through her wildly; uncontrollably.

More of the creature began to descend now, but even though she was looking and the earth shook even worse than before, causing her to flatten herself and clutch at the ground, waiting for the quakes to end.

Unfortunately for her, they did not.

"H-Henry…" she called out weakly. "…Lopmon… Help…help…me…"

"It always comes down to this…"

Not even noticing that the quakes had abruptly ended, Suzie looked up to see Henry, with Terriermon looped around one shoulder and Noriko standing next to him with Lumemon in front of her. Henry looked at her with a disappointed look.

"Henry?" Suzie asked.

"You always end up calling out for help," Henry said, shaking his head. "And I'm always having to come running to your rescue. It's no surprise to me actually…I mean, you're the youngest in our family and I'm your older brother… I'm _supposed_ to protect you. We're all supposed to look out for you, but I have to do that the most. We're Tamers after all. But…sometimes…I wish that you would stand on your own two feet." Henry sighed.

"Too bad you can't go Mega," chided Terriermon, giggling. "Otherwise we wouldn't have to bail you out of trouble so many times. Ol' Zhuq's took away Lopmon's ability to digivolve until you let her, but she can't go any higher than Ultimate. Nope. That's left to us big boys and girls. What would you do if a real bad one came along and no one could help you?"

The image of her fight with the abnormally powerful Tyrannomon flashed through her mind, and Suzie gripped the sides of her skull reflexively. Terriermon shook a finger and tsked as he continued.

"Really, what can you do? Stick 'em in a tutu, call them Pwince Pwetty Pants and tell them to Momentai?"

Noriko giggled. "Terriermon…"

"B-But that's why you're helping me, Henry…" replied Suzie, unlatching her fingers from her head. "That's why I asked you to teach…"

"Teach, teach, teach." Henry again shook his head. "But do you ever learn? How many times have I told you to not do something and you went and did it anyway? All to prove yourself or because you thought it would be fun. Each time you came close to getting hurt and I had to rescue you." Henry pulled his fingers into a tight fist. "Not this time. This time, I want to do something for me. This time, you're going to get out of this yourself."

"One way or the other, we won't have to rescue you anymore," laughed Terriermon. "Don't forget to momentai by the way."

With that, Terriermon, Henry, Noriko, and Lumemon disappeared from view, leaving Suzie alone with the nightmare that continued to descend into the ruins of Shinjuku. Her home was completely and utterly destroyed, as was her partner Lopmon. Nothing remained to her as a Tamer to defend the remaining rubble save her cards and her digivice…a digivice that had nothing but static filling its screen.

_"Let's see what you can do now when there's no one to help you…"_

She recognized the voice. It held the same, cruel tone that Atsuo used every single day that she saw him. A foot smashed towards her, shaking the ground once again, causing Suzie to cry out as terror again overwhelmed her. Claws flexed, shining with their own light. The beast drew closer…

* * *

"My, my," gasped Bakumon, licking his lips as the girl inside the apartment awoke with a scream. "That was…most exquisite."

"I thought you might like that," smiled Prometheus. "She is good hunting ground for you. Children at her age are rife with worries that are very easy to stimulate and augment. She's, how we say, 'fertile'. This world is full of people like her…children and adults alike."

Bakumon frowned. "This isn't the _only_ type of dream meal that I eat you know…"

"But for one such as you, it's your delicacy, am I right? You're not one of the guardians after all. You're one of the Wild Ones. So…what do you say? I can send you back when I desire, but if you do this job for me, and _only _this job, I'll let you stay here, completely undetected. Once we've finished up here, I'll make sure that you'll be able to evolve…gain your desires, and live your existence here with the crop of human dreams to do with as you please. And while you think about it, please do remember that it doesn't matter where you are or what you're doing, I _can_ send you back."

Bakumon scowled, repressing a shiver. Prometheus kept smiling.

"Fine," Bakumon said. "I'll do it. Wouldn't make sense to miss out on this setup anyway…not if I can get stronger. But I do want free reign during the daytime to go where I please."

Prometheus considered it a moment before nodding.

"Fine. But only in the Shinjuku area. See me at dawn each day and I'll imbed a _temporary_ program in you to avoid detection during the daylight hours. I should warn you that this isn't one hundred percent protection. You can still be seen if you're not careful…"

"Fine with me. I don't mind being seen. Not that I will, mind you…"

"Bravado." Prometheus tapped one flame pattern on his arm. "But I can make use of you, just like you me, and as long as we can make use of each other without stepping over our agreed boundaries we should get along just fine." Prometheus held out one hand towards the digimon. "Deal?"

Bakumon looked at the offered hand before finally joining it with his front paw.

"Deal."

* * *

Dusk settled over the digital world as rapidly as normal…or what was at least counted as 'normal' for the digital world. The Tamers were around the fire they had set up—at Ryo's insistence—each of them in various degrees of drifting off to sleep. Crusadermon and Cyberdramon stood at guard, neither of them seeming to require the slightest amount of rest for their vigil while MarineAngemon slept with his partner Kenta, cupped in the boy's hands while his back rested comfortably against Ayaka's. Miki slept a short ways away from the pair while Ryo Akiyama remained sitting, poking at the burning bits of their campfire, his thoughts in deep contemplation.

Looking next to him at the broken remains of a Hypnos communication device, he again wondered what happened to Urocyomon. They came across the comm. device shortly upon entering the canyon, abruptly losing the trail of Urocyomon as soon as they did so. Ryo found himself somewhat disturbed by the occurrence, and the discovery of the broken comm. device, coupled with the massive number of craters and broken rocks around did nothing to assuage his worries. The only thing that did was Cyberdramon's assurance that they were alone in the canyon. No digimon was remotely close to them by any means.

_Small comfort,_ he thought, looking out over the chaotic landscape that lay ahead of their small shelter—which basically consisted of a cliff hanging over their heads with a curved wall of rock flanking their backs and sides.

Across from him, Miki rolled over onto her other side, her hair falling away from her eyes where they met his. Ryo smiled gently at her.

"Hey. Can't sleep?"

"Mm-mm." Miki shook her head and giggled lightly. "Dracmon keeps making growly noises in his sleep."

Ryo chuckled. "No 'Beanie' tonight?"

"I only call him that to get a rise out of him," the girl replied, drawing herself up into a sitting position. "He owes me for the scare he gave me a few years ago when he said he was going back to the digital world. The jerk."

Ryo laughed lightly. "Sounds like a suitable punishment to me."

Miki was silent for a moment.

"So how come you're still awake?" she asked.

"Just thinking about where we should go next if we don't pick up Urocyomon's signal tomorrow. Yamaki's having Shibumi and Henry's dad looking into it. They say that they're still picking up his data pattern, but…" Ryo drifted off and frowned.

"It seems weird that they lost it too," said Miki. Ryo shrugged.

"Maybe not. He could have been nabbed by a data stream. I find it weird that they're still picking him up on this same level. Maybe he's just too far away for us to detect. Our D-Arcs do have limited range after all."

"Yeah…" Miki tightened one hand into a fist and pulled her knees up to her chest. "Hey, Ryo?"

"What's up?"

"I was just wondering…how can you stay so calm here? I mean, I know I've been here before, but I still got nervous when I was picked to come here. I…kind of expected to get attacked right away as soon as we landed. I can't help but wonder what we're going to meet out here. It's just so…empty." Miki glanced out at the desert that stretched out before them. "I thought that would comfort me, but it doesn't." Miki put on an embarrassed smile and tapped her head with her fist. "It's making my imagination run a little wild."

Ryo returned her smile. "I guess I'm just used to it," he replied. "I've been dealing with the digital world a lot before I even met you guys."

"Before you came to our world," Miki added, remembering the revelation that came when everyone merged and met Milleniummon for the first time. Ryo nodded.

"They dealt with digimon a lot there too. They went through their first generation when I came along. The only difference is I didn't have friends except the digimon by my side. Well…except for one occasion." Ryo smiled fondly as he thought back. "He saved my life then."

"Do you…miss any of them?" Miki asked tentatively. Ryo looked into the fire as he thought it over.

"With the exception of that one friend, I can't say that I knew any of them well enough to actually 'miss them'. Because of Milleniummon's nature I had to 'borrow' their partners to fight back, but I never actually became friends with them. I lived too far away to start with, and I didn't know where they lived either…at least not until I came here anyway. But," the reflection of the fire danced in Ryo's eyes, "I do sometimes wonder what life would be like if I never left that world."

Miki giggled. "From what I heard it would mean that Rika, Renamon, Kazu, and Kenta wouldn't be around if you didn't come here."

Ryo glanced at Miki and shrugged.

"Maybe. Maybe not. Rika…she's like Takato and Henry. She would have found a way to win."

"You think so?" asked Miki, raising an eyebrow. Sure, she knew that Rika was strong, but to hear Kazu and Kenta tell it, even to hear Rika's rather abridged version, it seemed like it had been a rather hopeless fight until he and Cyberdramon showed up.

"I've fought beside them long enough to know that she and Renamon would have. They've fought stronger than a Megadramon before. After all…she's the Digimon Queen."

"Hmmm…second only to the King, huh?"

Ryo looked up at Miki, looking startled for a moment before he schooled his face.

"She's good when it comes to cards," said Ryo. "But I know that she's better than me when it comes to matters of down here." Ryo tapped his chest for emphasis. "She opened up to others and started trusting them long before me. As cheesy as it sounds, that's the real strength for us. That's what separates her from me. But I'm learning."

Miki smiled. "I'm glad."

Miki glanced down at the sandy ground and absently drew circles in it, trying to think of something else to talk about. She didn't feel that she was going to be getting any sleep tonight, and she wanted to talk to Ryo some more.

_Talk…to…Ryo…_ Miki felt her eyes widen and her heart speed up just a tad bit at the realization, but she quickly forced her face to appear normal.

"So…ummm…hey, I don't suppose you can…uh…teach me a few things about the card game, could you? I know that I can't use any for my digivice, but I could use some pointers for my deck so I can kick Kazu's butt. And…um…" Miki looked back down at the dirt. "…I…would…feel bad about leaving you alone at night while we all slept…"

That last came out as little more than a mumble, and Miki felt as though her face was about to burst into flames from embarrassment. She wanted to kick herself for a dope, remembering that Crusadermon and Cyberdramon were still awake, leaving Ryo hardly 'alone' in the night.

_Even though they both make about as good conversationalists as a brick wall,_ she thought to herself.

In spite of her worries, Ryo gave her a comforting smile and he nodded, reaching for his deck box.

"Sure thing," he said, picking it up and moving over to the girl. "I could use a break from all the worrying I'm doing. I don't know how Takato does it, being the team leader and everything…"

"Oh, he's just very good at worrying over everything," giggled Miki, taking out her own deck. "Trust me. He's an expert at it."

With lighter hearts, the two friends began their game.

* * *

A/N: The plot thickens once again. If this keeps up, it's likely to turn into an artery blocker. Bad jokes aside, we see some more glimpses into Prometheus' plans, though glimpses they may be, and this time with a new character who is going to play an interesting role for a fair amount of characters in this fic. Hehe. :P And in this chapter, we also find out what Prometheus did to Yggdrasil...more or less. The mystery continues to unravel, piece by piece.

A bit of character exploration with Ryo. I actually wasn't planning on this scene, but as I began writing, I realized that I couldn't just avoid it, so I figured it would be a good spot to take a peek into his mind after the events of Less than Human. Ryo's come a long way since then, and his outlook on his life and the people around him have changed a lot since then. I feel that in retrospect, given some of the things that he's gone through, he's become a bit more open and willing to share a few things with the others (and why not? They now know that he's from an alternate reality after all). Ryo's usually been portrayed as pretty confident, and might even have had a bit of an ego (I think that when someone survives as long as he had in a place like the digital world, facing down more evil than two seasons worth of digidestined with their combined movies, crossing dimensions, losing your memory, regaining it, and defeating the digital world's equivalent to a god, I think a little ego indulgence is earned), but as noted, he's changed. With that change, he's looking at himself more, looking to become stronger, become better both as a person and as a Tamer, and with that in mind he would remember those who seemed to find their trust and friendship before him, which makes him worth exploring in that respect. And of course, his interaction with Miki in this chapter is a key part in her involvement in the story, as he takes her a little bit into his confidence…;P

'Till next chapter then.

-Crazyeight

* * *

8


	12. Mornings: Part 1

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.

Revival

Chapter: 12/ Morning: Part 1

Light raced over the digital world in one mad rush, and with it the massive claws of Cyberdramon dumped a pile of sand over the smoking embers of the groups campfire.

"That's that," said Ryo as the dragon digimon nodded towards him. Pulling out his digivice, Ryo activated the tracking program. "It looks like we can follow Urocyomon's trail again. It's a little bit faint, but we should be able to find him." Turning, Ryo looked over at his companions, a confident grin on his face. "Is everyone ready?"

A series of nods went all around, not least of all from Miki, who had to restrain herself from cheering out loud.

"All right. Kenta? If you and MarineAngemon would…"

"You got it," nodded the bespectacled boy as he adjusted his glasses.

"Pih!" added MarineAngemon with a fierce look on his face. **"Kahuna Waves!"**

The pink heart again materialized around Miki, Kenta, and Ayaka as Ryo climbed aboard Cyberdramon's shoulder. As soon as everyone was settled they took to the air, Cyberdramon at the front, the pink heart containing its charges in the center, and Crusadermon taking up the flank. A brilliant aura of white light surrounded the digital representation of the Earth hanging in the sky, illuminating the landscape as they resumed their journey across the broken and pitted landscape of the digital world.

* * *

Takato rubbed the back of his head as he sat up in bed, his mouth stretched out in a yawn.

_I'm on time,_ he thought, glancing over at his clock. _I'll have plenty of time to meet up with Rika and get to school after we've done some practicing._ Takato smiled as he thought about his red-headed friend._ I wonder how she's doing…_

Unbidden, a vision of a beach illuminated by a sunset came to mind, causing Takato to laugh a little. He pushed the image out of his mind, out of respect for his friend.

_She's still asleep,_ he thought, throwing aside his covers and climbing down. He chuckled again as he came across his partner, still snoring beneath his bed. _Funny…Rika always gets up early. Since when did she get to be like Guilmon?_

_ "I heard that Gogglehead…"_ came Rika's grumpy thoughts. Takato blinked.

"Uh…Rika?"

_"Who else could it be?"_

"It could be Renamon. She's used our link to talk to me before…"

_"Ugh… You just have to have an answer for everything don't you? Your little snooping woke me up by the way."_

"Hey!" exclaimed Takato, wandering over to his hamper, whereupon he began pulling out some clothes. "It's not like I meant to. I was still half asleep when I thought about you."

_"Whatever. What are you doing up so early anyway?"_

Takato grinned. "How come you're up so late?"

_"…Are you actually talking back to me? I always knew you had a backbone in there somewhere."_

Takato could almost feel Rika's grin on her face. He chuckled.

"Right. You know that I have school today."

_"That's right. I actually forgot. Your school also has the same six-day schedule that I do. Ugh. I have to admit"_ Takato heard Rika yawn,_ "having a two day weekend would be nice. Especially before Golden Week starts up."_

"Westerners sure have it nice," grumbled Takato. "I've heard that most of their schools have two day weekends regularly. Not to mention a longer summer break."

_"Quit your belly aching,"_ teased Rika. _"Speaking of which, I think we should cancel our practice for today. You're still healing up from yesterday."_

"Hey, I haven't missed a single one of our practices ever since we started doing them. I'm not going to let one bruise stop me from going out with you!"

Takato felt Rika's enthusiasm drop a little on her end of the connection.

_"…Smooth Takato. We're not dating you know…"_

"Oh, yeah," Takato nodded, laying out a long sleeved shirt on the floor. His own enthusiasm dropped a little too as he remembered his failed attempt to ask her out on a date last night. "But still…I just feel that our practice sessions are important. We promised we'd get stronger together, right?"

There was a beat as Takato laid out a pair of old pants.

_"You have a funny way of fulfilling that promise. I'm not having you hurt yourself any more on my account, Gogglehead."_

"Hey, I feel pretty good right now," said Takato, slipping off his shirt. "In fact, I feel better than…" Takato abruptly broke off as he looked down at himself.

_"Something up, Takato?"_

Takato blinked, remembering that he was still talking to Rika. "Huh? Oh…yeah. I…ah…guess you could say that. But…ah…" Takato coughed politely. "…do you think we could talk about it later? I'm…ah…changing."

_"Oh?"_

Takato swore he felt a malicious grin cross Rika's face through their connection. The devilish feeling that he knew for certain was coming from the girl felt like all the evidence he needed.

_She's still there…_

"Um…Rika. I…I can't really change until you…" Takato coughed again, starting to become a little agitated. "…until you close your blinds."

_"Oh…I'm well aware of that."_

Now he _knew_ Rika was grinning.

"You're going to fight dirty aren't you?"

_"Until you promise to take it easy today and just go to school, I'm keeping the shades open. Otherwise…"_ Rika's grin widened. _"…you'll just have to let me enjoy the show."_

Takato's face felt like it was ready to burst into flames. He sighed.

"Rikaaa…"

"Takato?" Guilmon lifted his head, his eyes fighting off sleep. "Could the two of you keep it down? Some of us are trying to sleep here…"

_"You were talking out loud the _whole_ time?!"_ Rika exclaimed in his head.

_"Ahhh…oops?"

* * *

_

Renamon phased into Rika's room as the red headed girl finished putting on her uniform. Straightening out her necktie, Rika scowled at it in the mirror before grabbing her school bag.

"You're not going to practice?" asked Renamon, noting that Rika had not dressed in a used set of clothes as was the norm for her morning practices with Takato.

"I canceled it for today," said Rika, moving into the kitchen. Again she scowled as she pulled open the refrigerator and began to scavenge for something quick to eat. "Guess that means I'm going to have to do without his Miso soup this morning. Stupid Gogglehead had to go and get himself hurt…"

"I see," observed Renamon, following her partner. "If you believe it's necessary…"

"It's not that big of a deal," said Rika, grabbing an apple and slipping it into her bag, deciding to eat it while she headed to school. "One little day off isn't going to change anything. Besides, like I said, Takato's a little too hurt for any roughhousing. He's been pulled off of missions until he's recovered anyway, so that's his own fault for that."

Renamon tilted her head to one side, but otherwise did not comment further.

"Anyway," continued Rika. "He still wants to meet with me in the park." Rika frowned.

"Are you going to go to the park to see him?" asked Renamon.

"Yeah…yeah I will. It's not like I have anything better to do for the next hour and a half."

Shrugging on her bag, Rika quickly wrote a short note and tapped it on the fridge with a magnet for her mother and grandmother to see once they woke up. With that done, the two friends quietly headed towards the door, slipped on her shoes and left the house. Renamon disappeared into thin air once they were outside, keeping a silent vigil on her partner.

_What is going through your mind?_ Renamon wondered as she leapt through the air, taking care to not be seen by any outsiders. She had noticed that Rika had been acting a bit…odd lately, though given these past few years that was hardly anything out of the ordinary. Her growing up was expected to bring changes to her, not just physically but also to her personality. Even so, it wasn't as though she did so all the time, or that she had changed in ways that were too noticeable.

Renamon landed on a telephone post, phasing back into reality. She paused to watch Rika make her way down the streets for a moment before leaping back into the air, disappearing as she did so.

She was hardly blind. Having lived in the real world for so long, she had grown to understand a great many things about humans, especially in regards to their interactions with the people they were infatuated with. She knew that the word did not apply to Rika, but she was well aware of the girl's feelings for Takato, and how they continued to endure these past three years, even growing stronger in spite of the rock waters that their mental connection generated for them.

Yet recently it struck her that Rika was making a conscious effort to push Takato some distance back from her.

She had easily noticed Takato's obvious attempt to ask the girl out on a date last night. It was difficult not to, and through the link that she shared with her partner she knew that Rika's reasons for not accepting were anything but.

_Rika… I've known of your feelings long enough to know that you would have been happy…so why…?_

Renamon sighed and shook her head. Although she had a greater understanding of humans than when she first came to the real world, there remained many things that she continued to not understand.

_I won't push the issue,_ thought Renamon as she bounded off another telephone pole. _But I wish I knew what was going through her mind. Hmmm…_ Renamon turned the thought around in her mind for a moment, considering her options. _Perhaps a talk with Ms. Hata is in order…

* * *

_

"Good morning, Suzie!" exclaimed Terriermon exuberantly, stretching out the syllables in 'good' as he bounced up into a chair.

"'Morning," grumbled Suzie, digging at her cereal half-heartedly.

"She okay?" asked the long eared rabbit dog digimon to his darker furred twin, who sat in a children's highchair next to the girl.

"She had a nightmare last night," Lopmon replied. "She's a little out of sorts right now."

"It's not _just_ because of that," Suzie chimed in irritably. "I have to go to school today. After what happened yesterday with that jerk, Atsuo, I don't think that I even want to go."

A coffee cup clinked on a plate as her father, Janyu set down his drink.

"Suzie…"

"Sorry, Dad," the girl said, her already glum expression becoming even more sullen. "I didn't mean it like that."

"Oh sweetie," said her mother, Mayumi as she approached the table and set a plate of eggs down in front of Terriermon. "Don't worry. I'm going to call the school today and have them deal with him."

"Like it's going to work," Suzie replied. Mayumi scowled.

"Suzie!"

Next to the woman, Jaarin finished eating her breakfast and swallowed.

"I kinda have to agree with her, Mom. This isn't the first time you and Dad have called the school about that kid and it hasn't gotten anywhere."

"If Ms. Asagi hasn't straightened things out by now, I think the kid is beyond salvation," added Terriermon, digging into his meal. "She used to teach Takato, Kazu, and Kenta. The way they describe her she's the next meanest thing after the D-Reaper. Even ol' Zhuq's doesn't hold a candle to her and he's a fiery bird!"

"Hmmm…" Janyu's newspaper rustled as he rubbed one hand against his chin. "…I wonder if I should talk to Yamaki…"

"Janyu!" scolded Mayumi. "We've already talked about this! We are _not_ going to ask the government to solve every little problem of ours! We'll work something out." Mayumi turned a comforting smile towards her youngest child. "Don't worry."

Suzie did not look at all comforted and continued to munch on her breakfast despondently. The ringing of the doorbell cut through the gloomy atmosphere and Jaarin got to her feet.

"I'll get it," she said. "I have to get going anyways."

Quickly depositing her dirty dishes in the sink, the elder sister headed towards the door and opened it.

"Hey, Noriko. Lumemon," she said, smiling at their visitors and stepping aside to let her in.

"Hey, Jaarin," replied Noriko, stepping out of her shoes while Lumemon offered a small wave at the older girl. "Is Henry awake yet?"

"He always is around this time," chuckled Jaarin. "Though he's a little bit late getting up if Terriermon's timing at the dinner table is any indication. Terriermon!"

"He's up! He's up!" replied the long eared digimon between mouthfuls. "You can go look in on him if you want. He's already done with his shower and in his room."

Jaarin grinned and turned towards Noriko.

"Go get 'em, tiger."

Noriko gave a small smile as she made her way up the steps into the apartment and, after bowing to the family gathered around the dinner table, headed towards Henry's room. Still grinning, Jaarin tipped a salute to her family.

"See you guys this afternoon."

After a round of goodbyes, the door clicked shut, returning the quiet to the apartment. Mayumi smiled as she watched Noriko stop at Henry's door and politely knock before turning the knob.

_Ahhh…_ she thought happily to herself. _Young love…_

Her gaze drifted away to give the two Tamers some privacy as they greeted each other, and latched themselves onto the pile of laundry that she still had to take care of. She had been letting it get away from her these past couple of days. She was going to need to get it done to…

Maymi froze as she took note of a particular pile of clothes sitting atop the rest. A dark colored school shirt folded atop a pile of pants.

"Ah! Noriko!" she called out as the door to Henry's room began to open. "Wait a minu—!"

But she was too late. The door swung open wide and Noriko stood there for a moment, her face changing between shades of ever deepening red while Terriermon fought to keep his laughter from being heard. Noriko stood stock still, every part of her frozen in place, save for her eyes which traced slowly upwards, ever widening in shock before finally freezing themselves.

"Um…Noriko?" coughed Lumemon from the kitchen. "Do you need some help moving?"

That did it. Snapping out of her paralysis, Noriko quickly shut the door and walked back into the kitchen. She was shaking badly, her face a perfect approximation to a tomato in terms of hue. Terriermon continued to laugh away.

"Terriermon…" frowned Lopmon, looking at her cream colored twin.

"What? I said he was in his room! I never said he was ready!"

* * *

"I'm _so_ sorry," apologized Noriko for what had to be the hundredth time. Blushing, Henry adjusted his collar and rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment.

"It's all right," he replied, looking up at the digimon that lay on top of his head. "If anything it's _him_ that should be apologizing…"

"Momentai already," giggled Terriermon. "I thought you two needed a push. You're all but a couple anyway."

The pair of humans blushed even harder, and Noriko fidgeted with her bag.

"What kind of 'push' involves Noriko seeing me… Terriermon!" Henry took a moment to calm himself. "You're lucky that I had already managed to get my boxers on before she opened up the door."

"Oh…" Terriermon sounded rather disappointed, but he quickly perked up. "Well…better luck next time then."

"T-Terriermon!"

"Um…A-Anyway," began Noriko, hoping to steer the conversation in a different direction. "H-How's your sister doing?"

Henry sighed.

"She's pretty upset. I'm going to be taking her to my martial arts teacher after school, and I'm going to partner up with her to help her. But…I just wish that I could do something more to help her."

"You can't be there for her all the time you know," said Terriermon. "She's got to grow up sometime."

"Gee Terriermon. Thank you so much for your wisdom. What would I ever do without you?"

"Sarcasm, Henry? I didn't know you had it in you."

"Terriermon…" scolded Noriko, frowning at him now. "He's just under a lot of stress. You know how he worries about Suzie."

"I know," replied Terriermon. "I live with him after all. Don't get me wrong though. I totally sympathize with him." Standing up on his feet, Terriermon puffed out his chest. "I don't take to kindly to anyone teasing Suzie…or trying to hurt her for that matter."

"I remember," said Henry. "You've gotten yourself into trouble with Zhuqiaomon and Chatsuramon that way."

"Hen~ry! Lopmon's too polite to take on a snotty brat like that Atsua kid! Hey, Henry! Can I take up body guarding duty? I promise I won't hurt him."

"No, Terriermon. You know that you can't fight humans."

"Ohhh…fine. But I don't see the difference between you teaching Suzie to beat that kid up and me taking care of it for her."

"Terriermon?" asked Noriko. "Just where have you been for the past four years? There are _lots_ of reasons why you can't fight humans."

"That's just stupid though. Me, Lopmon, and everyone else can protect you guys from rampaging digimon, but we can't do a thing to protect you from rampaging humans because doing so _might_ cause trouble for digimon? Where's the logic in that?"

Lumemon glanced over at Terriermon. "You can see logic?"

"You know what I mean!"

Lumemon looked at Noriko. "Maybe now would be a good time to run my idea by them."

Henry raised an eyebrow. "What idea?"

"Lumemon!" Noriko sighed. "It's nothing really."

"Doesn't sound like a whole lot of 'nothing'," said Terriermon. "Ol' Lumen here doesn't contribute ideas unless he thinks he's got a good one."

"Yeah, but there's no way that any of you guys are going to go for it, let alone Yamaki."

"Yamaki?" Henry raised an eyebrow.

"Lumemon…Lumemon wants to attend a human school."

Lumemon folded his arms behind his head.

"I look human when I hide my wings and dress in your clothes. All digimon age regardless of level. Not many people know about me being a digimon…"

"…Even though you fly about town sometimes," noted Noriko. "Crusadermon told me about your latest flight."

Lumemon squirmed a little under her gaze, but continued all the same.

"…But even so. I can work under cover if I'm put in Suzie's class."

"Why do you even want to go to a human school?" asked Terriermon. "From everything I've heard it sounds like a prison where they make you do slave labor and take up all the time that you would normally have having fun. And adults send you to these places." Terriermon looked down at Henry. "And you guys plan on going to another three years of it."

"And university," said Henry. "Still, I have to admit that it's an intriguing idea. A digimon going to a human school. Why do you want to attend school?"

"I…want to know more," replied Lumemon, looking a little uncomfortable. "I want to know more about humans, and the best way to do that is to live with them and do the things that they do."

"This from the guy who comes from a world created from a communication network where you can find just about anything if you look hard enough," said Terriermon, rolling his eyes.

"Terriermon…"

"Lumemon. You already do the things we do, and you've seen me, Daisuke, Mom…_everyone_ every day. You live with us."

"I want to do all those things around people who don't know that I'm a digimon," replied Lumemon. "And a digimon that learns to interact with humans would be useful in interactions with the digital world, like a translator or a negotiator."

"I have to admit," said Terriermon, "that actually sounds like a bright idea. Right up to the point where I remember that it'd involve him going to school."

"You do have a point there," said Henry.

"Huh? I do? Since when did you think that school was a bad thing?"

"I didn't say that it was, Terriermon. What I mean is, is that having a digimon going to school with humans would be like having a weapon there. I don't see how anyone would go for it."

"Your teacher says anything can be a weapon with enough imagination."

"Except digimon are made to be 'purposeful' weapons. No offense Lumemon, but you can summon a sword of light and fire energy beams. That's pretty dangerous, and you're already stronger than an average human adult. I have to agree with Noriko. This would only cause trouble. Even if Yamaki would somehow support it…"

"…which is doubtful," said Terriermon. Henry ignored him.

"…There would be too many risks involved, and that would bring us right back to what I was telling Terriermon. I think it would be one thing if you were attending the same school and class as Noriko. That's why our partners can sometimes enter the school grounds to deliver messages or other things, but they can't spend the day there. Suzie isn't your partner either. As much as I hate to say it, Noriko where your focus should be. Remember that."

"I know. I know." Lumemon nodded glumly. "It was just a thought though."

"Maybe when the world is ready enough, Lumen," said Noriko, smiling gently at him as she clasped a hand on his shoulder. "Right now, it's already on a pretty hair trigger."

"Don't you mean, trigger happy?"

Noriko frowned at Lumemon, noting his sulking tone.

"Don't be like that, Lumen…"

"I'm not. I'm just…" Lumemon sighed. "…Sorry. There's just so much I want to do…to learn. And there isn't much to do really. I don't know if either of you guys realize this, but I'm not like Guilmon or Calumon. I can't entertain myself for hours on end doing nothing or sleep the day away, waiting to get fed. When we're not fighting digimon I feel like I'm in the way, taking up space and…" Lumemon patted his stomach, looking embarrassed. "…eating more than my fair share of food."

"Mom has you help out, right?"

"Yeah, but…" Lumemon furrowed his brow, trying to convey the sense of what he was trying to say. He raised one hand and closed his fingers into a fist. "…I feel too limited."

"Sounds like somebody needs a hobby."

"Terriermon…" began Henry.

"What? You've heard what he's been saying, right? He's bored out of his mind, right?"

"I didn't say bored," said Lumemon. "I just said 'limited.' But I think we're drifting away from the subject. I've said my piece, and you've given your response. Now what about Suzie? Do you think that there's anything the school can do about her predicament? She's a Tamer, and an official government employee in charge of defending the city. Wouldn't that carry some benefits?"

"I don't know," said Henry. "There are limits to what the government can and can't get involved in. And my Mom's not to keen on having Hypnos step into everything that happens."

"Which I find weird," noted Terriermon. "You know how protective she can be of Suzie. You'd think she'd be all over Hypnos going in with everything short of tanks and fighters to deal with that bully. Believe me; you don't _ever_ want to make a mother angry."

"I know. And I think that might be what's behind it."

"Huh?" Terriermon, Noriko, and Lumemon all raised eyebrows and looked at Henry.

"Look, don't take this as truth, but I think my mother doesn't trust Hypnos anymore. She got into an argument with Dad back during the last time we all went to the digital world."

"Ohhh…that's right," whistled Terriermon. "I remember. The air was a bit chilly between them for a while. I can't say that I blame her. That time…it was really hard to momentai back then. You, me, Suzie, and Lopmon being taken back to the digital world without warning…Royal Knights blowing stuff up…the digital world nearly suffering a meltdown...your dad getting injured… Yeah. It's not exactly the nice, cozy, _normal_ family life I bet she was expecting when she married your dad."

"They weren't thinking about divorce were they?" asked Noriko worriedly. Henry shook his head.

"No. They love each other too much for that sort of thing…" Henry paused. "…At least, I think they do."

"They still have sex in their bedroom at night on an average of once a week, so I think that's saying something positive…"

_"Terriermon!"_

"Momentai!"

"You should never have let him get a hold of your computer," mused Lumemon. "You reap what you sow you know."

Noriko looked at the angelic digimon with concern. Although he sounded indifferent, she knew perfectly well what was going through his mind.

_Oh, Lumemon…I'm so sorry…

* * *

_

A/N: One thing that I've wondered about, authors like Nolaquen265 have touched on, and that Data Squad mentioned in its final episode, was how digimon deal with being alone when their partners aren't around and they aren't wiping the floor with rampaging, city-destroying digimon? What would they do in the event that they don't have to fight off the forces of evil or out-of-control sci-fi killer programs? Digimon like Guilmon and Calumon aside (as they tend to be pretty easily amused), I can't imagine it would be pretty keeping yourself entertained, and ultimately it would boil down to a digimon being reduced to pet status. And let's face it, unless you're a cat or allowed to have unprecedented freedom, being a pet isn't exactly the best choice of lifestyle, even if you get all the free food in the world that your owner can afford (often crunchy, unappetizing kibble, pellets, etc… Really, only the canned meat food looks remotely good) and don't have to work for a living. Some digimon get by without the need for many distractions or even needing a human around for it (like the ever awesome Renamon, Impmon, Terriermon, and Guardromon) but what about those who can't? It's definitely something to think about, and is on the mind of Lumemon, who wants to know more about people beyond what he reads, sees, and hears from other people. He wants to experience it all directly, and knowing that doing that would basically mean involving what's the equivalent of sticking a live bomb in a place that runs the risk of drawing all sorts of attention that causes things to become rubble isn't making it easier on him.

But that's mostly setup for Lumemon's part in the story. How that develops, we'll see as time passes.

Some minor stuff going on with Rika and Takato, and not much development with Ryo's search for Urocyomon, though that too will change as the story progresses.

'Till next time then. :P

-Crazyeight

* * *

9


	13. Mornings: Part 2

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.

Revival

Chapter: 13/ Mornings: Part 2

Bakumon floated through the park, taking in his environment while nibbling on a piece of fruit that he had taken from an open stand. Last night had been quite the development for him, and he was still digesting the full scale of it.

_Joining forces with this…Prometheus,_ he thought, weaving his way into a tree where he settled. _Just what is he? He looks like a human but he's not. He doesn't smell like one, and my senses tell me he's not. But he's not a digimon either. Could he be one of those…keepers of the east that I've heard about? I've heard about humans and digimon working together there as well…_

Bakumon sighed and bit into his fruit. He felt that he was going in nothing but circles with this. The man—for lack of a better description—was a mystery.

_Eat a girl's nightmares while causing them…how strange. Great benefit for me, since I live off that kind of thing, but why bring me in just to cause them? I don't see how they would benefit him at all. What am I supposed to do? He said he was conducting an experiment…_

There was that circling again. No matter how much he dwelled on it, it all came down to one simple fact: he knew absolutely nothing about Prometheus or his goals. He only knew that he was a mystery.

_Maybe I should just quit thinking about it and see where things go. Do my job. It's not like I've got a bad deal here. I'm in the human world, plenty of dreams to eat, and plenty of good food outside of that too. I've got it made._

Bakumon felt it before he saw it, and after nearly losing his fruit he quickly flew upwards, burying himself in the thick foliage of the tree. No sooner than he did so, he saw a yellow furred vixen—a Renamon phase into view directly beneath him. Bakumon froze up immediately, his eyes widening with fear.

_Ohshitohshitohshitohshito…_ the curse hammered itself through his mind, half expecting the vulpine digimon to immediately look up and launch an attack on him, looking to absorb his data. The Renamon did not do that however, and instead settled itself onto the branch easily, glancing over its shoulder at a red haired human that just entered into view beneath the tree at a jog. The girl was gone seconds later, and the Renamon disappeared shortly thereafter. Bakumon took a deep, relieved breath. His body shuddered and he slumped against the tree.

_That's right,_ he thought, his digital heart still beating painfully fast. _Prometheus gave me a trick code that keeps me from being detected by the usual digimon senses. Guess I have one thing to be thankful to him for. If it weren't for that, I'd be Renamon chow by now._

Moving out of hiding a bit, he glanced down the well-worn park path, becoming a little curious now. He couldn't see the Renamon, but she was running along the same course as the human girl.

_Partners?_ he wondered. He scowled, feeling resentment course through him, and his gaze wandered over to the human girl. She was tall, lithe, and the flash of red hair caught his interest.

_Sort of reminds me of that one time,_ he mused. _There was a Renamon then too._

Floating a little bit after the duo, his snack became caught by a tree branch, pulling it out of his paws. With a sharp cry, Bakumon tried to snag hold of it, but it tumbled away from his grasp and to the ground where it struck with a loud thud. As Bakumon again froze, the girl paused in her stride and turned to look at the source of the sound.

He saw her eyes.

If Bakumon hadn't frozen before, he most certainly was now. His eyes widened as he looked at the girl's violet irises, and they traced back up to the crimson that was tied back into a ponytail.

_I…I don't believe it!_ he stammered. _It's…it's _her!_ She looks different, but there's no way I can forget those eyes! She…_ Bakumon felt his breath catch in his throat and he licked the inside of his mouth furtively. It felt so terribly dry all of a sudden. _She's…there's no mistaking it. She's the Digimon Queen. The Child… The Tamer…_

The girl's violet colored eyes snapped away as she turned and resumed her jog. The yellow form of Renamon phased into view but once, looking at the fruit on the ground before disappearing again.

Bakumon felt a new series of tremors shaking their way through his body, and he settled down onto a branch, clutching closely to it for fear that he would fall. As things stood, he couldn't even trust himself to remain levitated, he was in so much shock.

"The Digimon Queen…" he breathed. "Of all the places I end up in, it's in the same city as you. This…" he furrowed his brow in confusion. "…is it…destiny?"

He paused, letting the thought sink in. It sounded wrong, but at the same time, it was the only thing that made sense to him.

_Is this where I get my second chance?_

He gripped the tree branch even more tightly for a moment before letting go. Summoning up his courage, he carefully followed the girl and the Renamon, taking care to stay out of their sight.

* * *

"Hey."

Takato turned, a wide smile blooming on his face as he saw Rika approaching him and Guilmon. It faltered a little as he noticed something crucial.

"Um…you're wearing your uniform."

Rika placed one hand on her hip and shook her head.

"Glad to see that you keep up with your surroundings, Takato. I already told you over the link that we're not doing any practice today."

"Oh yeah," said Takato, rubbing the back of his head as a look of disappointment fell over his face. "That's right."

"Don't give me that look. I already told you my reasons why." Rika gave her friend a playful smirk and tilted her head to one side. "Sometimes being friends with you is like being friends with a three year old. You get all broken up about every little thing. You never change. I think Guilmon gets that from you."'

"But Rika!" exclaimed Guilmon in his partner's place. "Takato just wanted to show you that he's okay! He…"

"Guilmon. There's no way he can be 'okay'. I felt him get hit and I saw the bruise he got from that Triceramon."

"That's just the thing," said Takato. "Look!"

"Takato…!"

Ignoring Rika's protests, Takato lifted up his shirt to expose the area where he had been injured. Rika's words died off as she looked, frowning in confusion.

_What the…? This can't be right,_ she thought, instinctively stepping closer. She had seen his injury in her mind when he had been treated, and she felt the pain it gave him then. The difficulty in breathing, the strain in his rib cage over even the slightest motion, the pain that came with simply walking…all of it encompassed within a single, purple and blue blotch so dark as to almost be black.

And yet here Takato stood, baring what looked t o be little more than a slightly faded brown spot where the bruise should have been.

_Come to think of it,_ thought Rika as she pressed a hand against the boy's injured side. _I didn't even notice him having any problems when we were talking earlier. It was like we were talking as usual._

"Um…Rika?" asked Takato. Glancing up, the red haired girl saw that his face had taken on a red discoloration. Pulling her hand away, Rika folded her arms beneath her breasts, _hmmphing_ at him.

"Pull your shirt down," she berated him. "Someone's going to think that you're a pervert or something trying to flash me."

"This from the girl who looked like she was feeling him up," crowed an all too familiar voice approaching them.

"Terriermon…" came the highly predictable response.

"What? That's what it looked like!"

Blushing brightly, Takato and Rika both turned away from each other as Henry, Noriko, Terriermon, and Lumemon approached them.

"It wasn't like that," the red-haired girl affirmed. Henry chuckled.

"Don't worry," the half-Chinese Tamer assured. "I saw what was going on. Takato… Did we just see that you're…" trailing off, his expression became concerned, but at the same time hopeful. Fighting back his blush, Takato smiled and coughed.

"Uh…yeah! I'm healing pretty fast…"

_"Too_ fast," added Rika, turning back to the boy. "You just got that injury yesterday. Unless we got sucked into a time vortex or something thanks to Ryo…"

"He's in the digital world Rika," spoke up Lumemon.

The violet-eyed girl turned her sharp gaze towards the angel. To his credit, Lumemon didn't flinch. Rika returned her attention to Takato.

_"…Unless_ we got sucked into a time vortex thanks to Ryo, there's no way you should have healed up from something like that this quickly." Rika frowned. "How _do_ you feel? When we were talking earlier, I didn't get any sense of pain from you, and I'm still not getting any now…"

"He's fine. See?" laughing Guilmon, clapping one claw against Takato's side hard, causing the teen to cough as the wind was all but knocked out of him. Rika winced and rubbed her side.

"…Okay, that I felt."

"Guilmon…" Terriermon shook a finger at the crimson dinosaur and giggled. "If you keep doing that, you're just going to end up hurting him more than that Triceramon. Then what are you going to do when you lose your main source of bread?"

"Ah…" Guilmon paused, becoming a little panic-stricken. Terriermon giggled again, deciding to twist the knife even further.

"And let's not forget what Rika would do if you accidently broke her Gogglehead."

At that Guilmon noticeably paled.

"You know," began Rika, eying the rabbit-dog digimon with a cool gaze, "I'm pretty sure that our government would love to know the effects of outer space on a digimon. Keep it up shorty, and I'll provide them with a candidate."

"I think we can do without the threats," said Takato, rubbing his side while giving his partner a warning look.

"Yeah," cheered Terriermon. "We can all use a good momentai. Right Henry?"

"Maybe…"

Terriermon perked an eyebrow at his partner's tone.

"Oh, what's the matter now?"

"Takato, I think we should get you down to Hypnos to be checked out."

"Checked out?" exclaimed Terriermon in surprise. "What for? Ol' Takatomon can heal faster now! I think that's going to do wonders for his getting his butt kicked by Rika!"

"But don't you want to know why?" scowled the half-Chinese Tamer before returning his attention on his brown haired friend. "It would be a good idea to know what's going on and why it's happening? Granted, it's great that you won't be off the team for a long period of time, but why all of a sudden?"

"And where is it going to stop?" Rika added, nodding in agreement.

"Okay…yeah," Takato replied, also nodding. "It is a bit weird. I can't say that I'm complaining right now, but… Well, just to be on the safe side, maybe we can get Mr. Mizuno to look me over."

"Maybe he can find your brain in the process," joked Rika, though she looked at the boy with concern. Takato smiled at her, feeling his heart flutter a little. Terriermon gagged.

"Ohhh…man! They're they go again with the lovey-dovey stuff and their mind talk! I'm tellin' ya. Those two are just one step away from…"

"Terriermon!" scolded Noriko, flashing a sharp, crimson-eyed look at the long-eared rabbit-dog digimon that was shared full heartedly by one Rika Nonaka.

"Okay, okay…sheesh." Terriermon settled down heavily on Henry's head, propping his head up on one hand while he busied himself with the scenery. "Still," he grumbled. "I really wish at least _one_ of you guys would do something about all your unresolved sexual tension. It's a sad thing when Kenta's made more progress in the relationship department than the four of you put together."

_"Terriermon!"

* * *

_

Bakumon watched the Tamers from the relative safety of a nearby tree, his mind awhirl with so many thoughts and questions. But there was one thing he knew for certain.

_Yeah. There's no mistaking it. It's definitely her. _

Bakumon's eyes flashed.

_This has turned out far, far better than I thought it would…

* * *

_

Blackness met his eyes as he awoke.

_My back is killing me, _were his first thoughts as muscles protested against the cold, hard ground that he found himself upon.

"Did anyone get the number of the mon that flattened me?" he moaned, turning onto his side. The movement proved to be a big mistake. Pain flared in his right arm, and he flipped over to the other side automatically. He gritted his fangs together tightly as a dull throbbing gradually replaced the fire that raced through his arm. He pulled it tightly against his chest, a light pant making itself heard in the quiet of the darkness.

Once the pain had subsided, he took stock of his situation.

_My arm seems to be bound in a sling,_ he thought, noting a slight tension wrapped around said appendage and extending up to his neck. _Why didn't I notice it earlier?_

Shaking his head, he got to his feet, stumbling a little as he did so.

_Get a hold of yourself,_ he thought, bracing himself against a nearby wall. _Sheesh. It's a good thing Kuzuhamon isn't here. She'd laugh her head off and tell me how helpless I am without her. I can just hear her now. "So you thought you could handle yourself, huh? I thought I'd help you with this but nooo… You wanted to be a big, grown fox before you were even out of the litter." Terrific…_

Curling one paw into a tight fist, he muttered a few words beneath his breath and then snapped his claws apart.

**"Fox Fire."**

A small ball of silver-blue flame sprung into existence, illuminating the darkness around him. The silver furred fox, finally revealed, stood stock still, taking in his environment.

"Well…" Urocyomon said with a dry, sarcastic tone. "…it would appear that I'm stuck in a cave."

_…And this would be where Kuzuhamon would say "bravo. You _can_ figure out where you are by just looking. You're so observant."_

Tossing the flame into the air where it hovered, Urocyomon repeated the gesture that had brought it to life, creating several more, which he levitated around him, giving him greater field of vision. He was definitely in a cave; a tunnel to be more precise that seemed to stretch on both in front of him and behind him. Urocyomon narrowed his eyes in annoyance and twitched his tail in agitation. There was something rather…_unsettling_ about this cave, and it had nothing to do with the fact that it was dark.

_Oookay…now how did I get here?_ Pressing his free claw on his chin, Urocyomon thought back, wracking his brain for any recollection of past events that could shed light on the situation.

_Let's see…I was scouting out an area for Yamaki…I spied a human tangling with a group of Goblimon headed by an Ogremon, and he made an Agumon digivolve to…some kind of Greymon subspecies and they got to work on thrashing everyone left and right. After that something…something…_

Urocyomon closed his eyes, trying desperately to remember. His head felt as though it were being beaten against a brick wall. Out of habit, he brushed a claw over the top of his head and…

"Ow, ow, ow!" Urocyomon winced, and after quickly checking his paw for any sign of digital blood he carefully pressed it back onto the area where he had felt the pain. A swollen mass of data greeted him.

Urocyomon scowled.

"Well…I suppose it could have been worse. Jeez…just what the heck did I get ambushed by?"

A memory sparked, and Urocyomon's eyes widened slightly. _A shadow! A shadow had fallen over…_

Golden light appeared at the end of the tunnel before him, and Urocyomon fell into a defensive crouch. There wasn't much he could do as far as retreating went, except go backwards, but the possibility of encountering someone who might be able to tell him where he was and, hopefully, show him the way out, tempted him to stay put.

At the same time however, he was painfully aware that if worst came to worst, his lack of attacks combined with his injured state would not help him in the least if he didn't leave now. Still, there was always the chance…

_Ah! My spear!_ Reaching over his shoulder, Urocyomon's paw grasped thin air. Panicking, he looked around, trying to locate his weapon. No such luck. _Oh, nuts…well, my bag is still here, _he thought, patting it on his side to make certain that that at least remained with him, _but it's not equipped to fend off a Wild One._

As he watched, a figure appeared within the golden aura thrown off by a torch, revealing it to be a human; the human that Urocyomon had seen earlier. Reddish, brown hair fell over his neck, giving him something of a wild look, but his wide, golden eyes held a comforting maturity that reminded him only a little of his teacher, Gyōjamon, almost setting him at ease.

_Not much though,_ thought Urocyomon, glancing around him once more to make sure that he didn't miss anything. He returned his attention back to the human as he approached. Narrowing his eyes, he focused on the torch. It looked a little long to his eyes…

_Oh, you have _got_ to be kidding me!_ Unmindful of the possible dangers, Urocyomon dashed forward, and before the human could even react, he ripped the long torch out of his hands. All at once, light flared around it in response, vaporizing the golden flames and the torn pieces of cloth that surrounded the spear tip.

"Whoa! Hey!" exclaimed the human defensively. "Take it easy! I only needed that so that I could see where I was going…"

"So you could 'see where you were going'?" exclaimed Urocyomon, aghast. "Do you have any idea what this is? It's a priceless heirloom to my _race!_ You better not have damaged it…"

"Chill." Smiling, the human planted a comforting hand on the fox's shoulder. "After what happened to us earlier, I figured that a little Pepper Breath wouldn't harm that thing. It looks like it held up pretty well. I mean, it _is_ all metal after all…"

"Wait, wait, wait," Urocyomon held up one hand, confusion on his face. "'After what happened to us earlier?" _What_ happened to us earlier? Just who the heck are you?"

Now it was the human's turn to look confused.

"You mean, you don't know…?" The human grumbled something under his breath and stalked past Urocyomon. "Agumon…"

"Huh?" Urocyomon blinked. "Agumon?"

"HEY!" The human called out, unmindful of Urocyomon's question. "Hey! Agumon! Where'd you go?"

"…Right over here, boss!" came the responding call as the pitter-patter of clawed feet on rocky ground filled the cavern. As Urocyomon watched, a large, orange scaled reptile with a stubby tail and two clawed arms garbed in bracers raced over to them.

_Wha…?_ Urocyomon stammered, nearly staggering backwards in surprise. _That's an Agumon? No…no! That's not… _Urocyomon shook his head. _There's no way that can be an Agumon. I've seen them, and they certainly don't get to be _that_ large! Especially in the head like that. Must be a subspecies… But…didn't the human call him an Agumon? What the heck is going on here?_

"Where'd you go, Agumon?" the human demanded, grinding his knuckles into the digimon's skull. "I thought I told you to stay here and keep an eye on him while I looked for a way out."

"Sorry boss! But I had to use the little mon's cave! These things don't exactly wait for you to come back you know!"

"Disobeying orders, huh? A real man would just hold it in…"

_"Boss!"_

"Um…" began Urocyomon, breaking the two up. "…can one of you tell me just what the heck happened, who you are, and where we are?"

Turning towards the silver furred kitsune, the human and the Agumon both pointed at each other.

"Well, this is Agumon…"

"And this is my boss, Marcus Daimon. We're the top street fighters in all the digital world!"

"And I'm Urocyomon," the fox digimon nodded, feeling a little irked by the duo's claim.

"As for where we are…" Marcus frowned. Urocyomon glanced around.

"Kinda self-explanatory," he admitted. "So you guys don't know how to get out of here then?"

"I did some looking around," said Marcus. "I didn't go too far, but it looks like that end of the tunnel," Marcus pointed in front of him, "just goes on in one straight line for quite a long way. I didn't go too far, but I think we might be down here for a while."

_…Terrific…_ Urocyomon palmed his face and took a deep breath. "Well, it's probably a good thing that I'm with you guys then. I've got a knack for finding my way out of places like this. I'll need a few minutes of concentration though."

Agumon turned towards Marcus. "Hey, boss. Why don't you just use your special 'Marcus Daimon Punch' and get us out through the roof?"

Urocyomon's eye twitched. _Tell me he did not just suggest causing a cave-in as a way out…_

"Sorry Agumon," Laughed Marcus. "Thomas would give me all kinds of reasons as to why that would be a bad idea. And to be honest, I would have to agree with him here." Marcus turned his attention back to Urocyomon.

"You said that you can get us out?"

Urocyomon nodded. "All I need is a few minutes of silence."

"All right. You'll have it."

* * *

"All right," said Urocyomon finally. "I know which direction we have to go."

"All right!" cheered Marcus, clenching one hand into a fist. "Sounds like we've got ourselves a navigator!"

"But boss," said Agumon, his voice full of concern. "How does he know? All he did was sit down and not do anything!"

"The same way that you can breathe fire out of your mouth," said Urocyomon, using his spear to help support himself. "It's my technique. Navigating the digital world is my species specialty. Not sure why, but it takes a lot of practice. Eventually we get to the point where we can pull data streams to use as transportation to get where we want to go. Works really nice, and saves a lot on walking."

Marcus looked at Urocyomon and raised an eyebrow. "Data streams?"

"Large pink columns of light sweeping all over the place," Urocyomon clarified. "You were on the surface level of the digital world this entire time and you didn't know about them?"

"So that's what they're called." Marcus rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Well, I guess that beats what Agumon's been calling them. Yeah, it sounds about right. That's what brought us here."

"A data stream brought us here?" asked Urocyomon, raising an eyebrow. Mentally he decided that, given their location, it made sense. The cave they were in was far too deep and twisted for them to have just run into it on a whim, even if they were trying to escape an attacking digimon.

_Beside, if we had to run from a digimon and we ended up in a place like this, I don't think we would have escaped it. Unless it was really big, in which case we wouldn't have needed to go this deep and gotten this badly lost._

Marcus nodded at Urocyomon. "Yeah. After we beat all those Goblimon and Ogremon, we got into a fight with some robed guy. Don't know where he came from, but he was pretty powerful. I had to digivolve Agumon to his Mega form just to keep up with him."

"He broke the Geo-Grey Sword," grumbled Agumon, crossing his claws over his chest. "Well, I'll get him next time. Just you wait, boss! I'll give him a taste of my Burst Mode and then he'll be sorry!"

"You guys can already go Mega and have a Mode change?" asked Urocyomon, a little incredulous. Marcus and Agumon both nodded, sharing a grin.

_I guess it makes sense,_ thought Urocyomon. _After all, he's a Tamer, right? They have the potential to bring out the maximum potential within a digimon. The group back in the real world has quite a few Megas of their own, and some can Mode Change as well._

"Just out of curiosity," he asked, his tail swishing through the air, "how long have you guys been here?"

Marcus scratched his chin thoughtfully. "Counting the time we left home… I'm not sure really. Months?" Marcus chuckled, sounding a little embarrassed. "I haven't had any way of keeping track of time ever since we got here." Marcus' expression turned into a frown just then. "Although…things have been pretty weird these past few days."

"You can tell me about it while we're walking," said Urocyomon, moving forward. "How exactly has it been 'pretty weird'?"

"It's been different. I'm not exactly sure, but Agumon and I found a staircase in the middle of nowhere and we ended up in the desert that we met you at. Neither of us have seen that weird globe hanging in the sky before."

"Hmmm…" Urocyomon furrowed his brow. "The digital world is different in different places. It's like geography. The data that makes up an area alters the way it appears from one place to another. Every quadrant has its own look."

"Quadrant?"

"Long explanation short, different sections of the digital world. Think a jigsaw puzzle. One very large, very layered jigsaw puzzle."

"Hmmm..." Agumon rubbed his stomach. "Hey boss. I'm hungry. Are we there yet?"

"Agumon…"

"Can you tell your partner to momentai?" groaned Urocyomon, massaging his eyes in exasperation.

"Uh…what?"

"Take it easy. That's what it means. Anywa—oh!" Urocyomon's eyes went wide and he dug into his bag. "I'm so stupid… Why didn't I think of this before?"

"Think of what before?" asked Marcus.

"I have a communication device that lets me get in touch with the real world! I know some people who can help us get home without having to deal with all this walking around!"

"Oh, you mean DATS," said Marcus. "We already know about them. They're back up? I thought that they were shutting down when everyone's partners came back here."

"Uh…huh?" Urocyomon looked up at Marcus, a little baffled. "I don't know anything about this 'DATS'. I was talking about Hypnos. I…" Urocyomon scowled as he rummaged around in his bag. "That's strange…where is it? It's…it's not here! I could have sworn I tucked it back in before I was coming to meet you guys!"

"Meet us, huh?" Marcus and Agumon both exchanged glances. "You must have dropped it during the fight. It got pretty hectic out there. You were right there in the middle of it."

"Middle of it…?" Urocyomon dug around some more, becoming a little frantic. _This is bad… If I can't establish contact with Yamaki, how are they going to know where I am or how I'm doing? What's the procedure if I get out of contact like this? Twenty-four hours and then they send someone in?_

Urocyomon groaned as pain throbbed in his skull, beating in tune with his frustration as it threatened to overtake him completely.

"Hey, you okay?" asked Marcus, placing a concerned hand on the fox's shoulder.

"My head's killing me," Urocyomon grunted.

"No surprise there. You got hit pretty bad. That robed guy really had it in for you."

"…Robed guy…?" asked Urocyomon. Marcus nodded and stabbed a thumb at his chest, a wild, confident grin blooming on his face.

"Yeah. But you don't have to worry about him, because as long as Agumon and I are on the case, you're under our protection! That's my promise to you as the digital world's number one street fighter!"

"Yeah! Go boss!"

_Oy…

* * *

_

A/N: Sorry for the late update. I've been pretty busy, and the next two weeks are shaping up to be even more busy with finals. Ugh. Anyway, so some more stuff happens. Bakumon is familiar with Rika, Takato is healing faster than normal, and we finally see what's going on with Urocyomon after his discovery of Marcus and Agumon from Data Squad. I'm not too sure if I've got their personalities down in this chapter, as it's been a while since I last saw an episode of Data Squad (I'm afraid that they might be a little too 2-dimensional as a result) so any help/advice/critique for their characterization would be greatly appreciated (to go with anything else in this story as well).

'Till next chapter. :P

-Crazyeight

* * *

9


	14. On the Other Side of the Abyss

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.

Revival

Chapter: 14/ On the Other Side of the Abyss

Ryo scowled at his digivice.

"That's weird," he said. "Cyberdramon, take us down."

"What's wrong?" growled Cyberdramon as they soared over an open canyon and landed on a nearby ledge. The pink heart bubble containing MarineAngemon, Kenta, Ayaka, Miki, and Dracmon floated nearby with Crusadermon flanking them.

"Hey, Ryo," said Kenta from within the bubble. "Is everything all right?"

"I'm not sure. Hang on a second." Returning his attention to his D-Arc, Ryo checked the tracking function. The compass swiveled around wildly before finally settling on a direction. Ryo pressed his lips into one thin line. "There we go. For a second there we lost Urocyomon's signal but now it's back. Have any of you guys noticed it?"

"We were mostly following you," said Ayaka, glancing over at Kenta. "But…"

"I did notice that there was something weird going on with the digivice's compass," acknowledged Kenta, adjusting his glasses. "There were a couple times where it seemed to fizzle out on Urocyomon's signal. It's not as bad as last night though. We didn't catch a glimpse of his signal once. Uh…I think."

"Not once at all," replied Ryo in confirmation. "It's like he's there, but he's not there." Ryo looked over out towards the horizon in the direction that they were headed. "Well, at least now I know that it's not just my digivice that's acting weird." Ryo patted his partner's shoulder. "Let's keep moving. It doesn't look like he's much further."

Ayaka pulled out her own digivice and activated the tracking function.

"The signal _does_ end rather abruptly in one area up ahead, but that could mean anything."

"Better than nothing, darlin'," spoke up Dracmon. "After all we've only got so much to operate on, so we might as well check out this lead, m' I right?"

"More like obvious," replied Ayaka in a deadpan manner. "Thank you so much for stating it."

"Sure thing. Any time. Someone's gotta make sure that everyone is all up to date on the mission after all…"

Miki frowned at her partner. "Beanieee…"

"Fine, fine. I'll shut up. Just don't use that name, sheesh."

With no more time to lose, Cyberdramon leapt back into the air, with the others following closely behind.

* * *

"Are you going to be okay, Suzie?" asked Lopmon as both she and her partner stood outside of the school gate. Suzie shrugged her bag into a more comfortable position and smiled warmly at her partner.

"I'll be okay. My parents had a talk with the school this morning…"

"But Suzie, didn't they say that if something like this doesn't happen on school grounds than there's nothing that they can do about it?"

Suzie gritted her teeth. She had been hoping that Lopmon wouldn't remind her of that particular loophole. It only served to remind her that as far as Ms. Asagi or any other teaching authority were concerned there legally wasn't anything that they could do until they actually caught Atsuo in the act of bullying her. Forcing a smile back onto her face, Suzie shrugged.

"Well…either way, I'll still be okay. You don't need to worry about me."

Lopmon gave Suzie a concerned look, but nodded nonetheless.

_There's not much I can do once she goes inside that gate,_ she thought to herself as Suzie gave her a departing wave and headed towards the school. Once she was far enough, Lopmon looked down at the ground with a forlorn expression. _I wish that I could do more…_

Lopmon gave a startled cry of surprise as something impacted into her from behind, sending her crashing to the ground.

"Ohhh…" rubbing her head, the gray furred rabbit pushed herself back to her feet and looked around. A soccer ball rolled gently next to her.

"What were you doing?" demanded a child's voice angrily as a foot settled heavily on the soccer ball. Looking up, Lopmon found herself staring into the furious eyes of…

"Atsuo," she breathed. The boy's eyes narrowed dangerously at her.

"Hey! I asked you a question! What were you doing? Pay attention to your surroundings next time!"

Kicking at the ball, Atsuo bounced it off his foot and onto his leg where it rebounded into his hand. The boy gave the small, rabbit digimon one final glare before turning towards the school gate.

"Ah!" exclaimed Lopmon, running forward after him. "Atsuo! A—!" Lopmon paused, trying to remember the boy's last name. "Mr. Tanaka!"

That caught the boy's attention. Stopping in midstride, Atsuo turned with a raised eyebrow at the digimon.

"So…you've decided to speak to me with some respect? Don't you think it's a little too late for that kind of thing?"

"Mr. Tanaka," continued Lopmon, collecting herself. "I know that there isn't much time before you must be in class, but I have a request I would like to ask of you."

Atsuo rocked on his heels, an annoyed expression on his face.

"Why should I listen to you?"

"Because it concerns my partner, Suzie. Please, I know that you dislike my kind, but there's no reason for you to target her. I know that I can't do anything to sway your opinion or your actions, especially in light of yesterday, but it would set my mind, and hers at ease if you ceased to pursue her. She is just like you. There is no benefit in going after her. And," Lopmon tightened her paws, "if you would rather, I will submit myself in her place. If there is any anger that you have towards her, place it on me."

Atsuo glowered at the diminutive digimon for a second before shaking his head in disgust.

"You're crazy," he muttered, passing through the gate.

"Mr. Tanaka!"

_"Don't_ call me that!" Atsuo exclaimed loudly, not breaking stride. "And don't follow me!"

Lopmon's face fell, and she remained rooted outside the school's gate, watching Atsuo enter the building where he joined Suzie. After a few moments, the gate to the school closed with a low clank of metal, sending shivers down her spine.

_Oh Suzie… Good luck.

* * *

_

Suzie had just pulled out her notebook and placed it on her desk when a shadow fell over her.

"You got something to say to me?" came a painfully familiar voice that caused Suzie to tense up in response.

"Atsuo…"

The shadow shifted and the boy was suddenly in front of her, eyes glaring dangerously at her.

"Look at me when I'm talking to you," he growled. "I asked you if you got something to say to me!"

Suzie narrowed her eyes.

"What could I _possibly_ have to say to you, Atsuo?" she asked, heat starting to flare in her body. "And while we're at it, isn't it a little too soon to be bothering me? It's almost time for class and…"

"I don't care!" Atsuo slammed one hand onto Suzie's notebook. The sound was all but deafening, and all conversation in the classroom died immediately. All eyes were on the two students now. Suzie gritted her teeth and pulled herself out of her chair. It looked like a fight was going to break out whether she liked it or not. Up until yesterday she didn't think that it would ever happen despite Atsuo's hostility towards her, but now she could no longer afford to think like that. If a fight started, she wanted to be on her feet and moving.

"Back off, Atsuo! We're in school!"

"Then tell your _digimon_ to back off and to not talk to me! If I _ever _see that little rat trying to make nice with me again, I'll tie its ears into a knot!"

Suzie ground her teeth together, seething. She had to restrain herself from throwing herself at the kid right then and there. No one ever talked about her partner like that, or even threatened them, but thoughts of her family and how they would react to her getting into a fight prevented her from doing so. The last thing she wanted right now was to cause trouble for her family.

"And where do you get off saying stuff like that?" she replied angrily, her fingers itching to pull themselves into fists. "You already went too far yesterday. I'm amazed she even bothered to try talking to you after what you did."

"Just tell your _thing_ to steer clear of me if she doesn't want to be road pizza, got it?"

Suzie's eyes went wide with shock at that. White flooded her mind just then, and for a moment she felt as though she was suspended within that blinding light. The moment passed quickly, and the light grew into a terrible heat that consumed all of her control like dry kindling. The next thing Suzie knew her body was moving of her own accord. Letting loose an unearthly scream, her fist slammed home into Atsuo's face. She didn't give him a chance to recover as she threw herself at him, knocking them both to the ground at the exact moment that Ms. Asagi entered the room.

_"Suzie!"_ Ms. Asagi exclaimed, dropping her things and rushing over to the battle zone. "Suzie! Let him go! _Let…him…__**go!!! SUZIE!"

* * *

**_

"They have a history of animosity from the moment they stepped foot in my classroom," said Ms. Asagi to the Principal, Seiji Kurosawa. The man sat behind his desk across from the teacher, looking over the two students with a dry look. Atsuo sat with his arms crossed, looking at the clock in agitation. A large bruise, though hidden due to the direction he was facing, was swelling below his eye.

"Starting the day off early I see," Kurosawa said with an exhausted sigh, indicating the folder on his desk. "So they still won't get along."

"There've…been a lot of problems, sir," Ms. Asagi nodded. "Racial slurs, teasing…all with Atsuo Tanaka as the aggressor."

"…and just yesterday there was theft of property and actual physical assaulting," said Kurosawa. This caught Atsuo's attention and he sat up, focusing on the Principal.

"What are you talking about? I never hit her or stole anything from her!"

"Says you," grumbled Suzie, earning her a glare from the boy.

"Suzie." Kurosawa gave her a warning look before continuing. "We received a call from her mother just this morning. Apparently you and two of your friends attacked her and stole property from her. Her…" the Principal looked down at a note sitting on top of the folder laid out on his desk. "…Digivice if I'm not mistaken."

"She's got it clipped onto her belt!"

"You dumped it after you took it from me!" growled Suzie. "Don't think you can lie your way of this…"

"Suzie!" This time Ms. Asagi shot the girl a warning look, and she quieted, slumping back into her chair with a bitter, angry expression.

"I have already spoken to the two other perpetrators involved in the matter; your _associates._" Kurosawa folded his hands together and leaned forward. "At least one of them corroborates Suzie's story. On this, there isn't much I can do, as it was outside of school grounds. However, the file on this matter does serve as evidence. Ms. Asagi has had to separate the two of you on numerous occasions both in class and during recess, and there have been more than a few complaints from the Suzie's mother as well."

"But that's a _l—!"_

"What do you think, Ms. Asagi?" asked Kurosawa, ignoring the boy. Leaning back in his chair and placing his folded hands on his stomach he looked over at Ms. Asagi. "As Suzie is the victim here, it would be unfair to move her from your class, and you are best suited to dealing with Tamers due to your experience from three years ago. But I should know this first: how does she get along with the rest of the class?"

"She gets along fine with the others. She works well with groups and she has a few friends as well."

"I see." Kurosawa twiddled his thumbs for a moment as he eyed Atsuo. The boy took a deep breath, trying to salvage the situation.

"I'm telling you, I did _not…"_

"Atsuo Tanaka," the Kurosawa cut in, his tone silencing the boy. "We're going to make arrangements to move you into Mr. Iwamoto's class. He is a bit stricter in dealing with problematic students like you, and due to Ms. Wong's status as a Tamer, it wouldn't do to cause so much disruption in her life. I hope you come to understand that you brought this on yourself."

* * *

Ryo was frowning again, and he was not the only one. His expression was matched by the other Tamers gathered around him.

"Are there any caves around here?" he asked finally, turning towards Crusadermon. The Royal Knight folded her arms over her armored chest.

"The arrangement of the landscape has altered since this area was last explored," she said. "Though it might be possible. Prior to my arriving in your world, there was a report of Drimogemon in the area, however I cannot vouch for the accuracy of that information. Yggdrasil and the Royal Knights abandoned this world and were withdrawing their resources to the new world. By then, anything concerning the old digital world was suspect and open to interpretation."

"Well," said Ryo, pulling out his deck and fanning through the cards. "This is where the signal ends, so we're going to have to take a look around. Urocyomon's in this area. Kenta, can you let Yamaki know what's going on and see if he can give us a hand with scanning? We might be able to pinpoint him more accurately."

"Sure," said Kenta, digging out his communication device from his knapsack. "But didn't Yamaki say that they were having trouble conducting any scans? That's why we had to go in on foot, right?"

"At this point, I'd rather have any advantage we can get." Ryo cast a look at the surrounding landscape. "We're kind of exposed out in the open here. Easy pickings for any digimon who happens to come by looking for a fight."

"As if we need to worry about that," said Dracmon, folding his arms behind his head and rocking on his feet. "I'm not sensing a single digimon anywhere close to us. Present company excluded of course."

"And what about far?" asked Crusadermon.

"Er…" Dracmon looked a little uncomfortable. "There're two…"

"See?" said Ryo, selecting one card from his deck and pocketing the rest. "If our digimon can sense them, it's a fair bet that they can sense us. The sooner we can get Urocyomon, the sooner we can get out of here without a fight."

"A pity," growled Cyberdramon, flexing his claws. "I sense that those two digimon are quite powerful. I would enjoy fighting them."

"The best victories are those where a battle isn't fought at all, Cyberdramon," said Ryo, slashing the card through his digivice. **"Digi-Modify! Digmon's Drills activate!"**

With a roar, Cyberdramon raised his claws into the air. Light materialized around them, warping and changing their shape to fit two rapidly spinning drills. Wasting no time, Cyberdramon slammed them down into the ground, sending rock and dust flying through the air.

"Cyberdramon," chirped Ayaka, with a grin. _"Dig deep."_

"Huh?" Kenta looked at his girlfriend with a startled expression. Ayaka laughed.

"Just something Jeri said to Guilmon back in the day, when you guys first introduced us to Guilmon, remember?"

"Oh, yeah…right."

The hole deepened and began to widen to accommodate Cyberdramon's large body. As he did so, Crusadermon narrowed her eyes beneath her helm.

"Ayaka. Those two digimon…they've changed their course to intercept us. They'll be here soon."

"Oh great," muttered Kenta while Ayaka clenched one hand into a tight fist.

"Dig fast, Cyberdramon."

Ryo gritted his teeth as his partner continued to tear through solid rock. Sparks flew through the air. Ryo turned towards the others with a determined expression.

"We're going to need to need to come up with a backup plan here."

* * *

"We're almost there," said Urocyomon as he finally spied light coming up ahead of them. It was a pale light, not necessarily dissimilar from the light produced by his _Foxfires,_ but he could definitely see an opening.

"All right!" cheered Marcus, clenching one hand into a fist. "I knew that we'd find our way out."

"That's right, boss!" supplied Agumon, waving his claws in the air.

"Thanks, fox buddy," said Marcus, grinning while he reached out and ruffled Urocyomon's head. The fox digimon squirmed underneath the treatment, silently fuming that his fur was being mussed up.

"The name's Urocyomon," he grumbled. "And you're welcome. Though I should probably point out that since we were in the same boat, it doesn't exactly look like anything other than self-interest…"

"Well, whatever." Marcus thumbed his nose, his grin widening. "We still got out in the end, and that means we're free to roam. Back to doing what we do best, which is kick butt and take names."

"Yeah!" crowed Agumon. Restoring order to the digital world is what we're all about."

"Restoring order, huh?" Urocyomon's fur twitched as they continued towards the exit. There was something that was causing his fur to prickle. It left him with a feeling of unease. "Just what exactly are you restoring order to the digital world from? I've been around, and I haven't exactly seen anything really problematic lately."

"You didn't know about the mess that went down?" asked Marcus, raising an eyebrow. "The human and digital worlds went to war with each other and everyone banded together to stop it."

"There's a lot of cleanup work left over to do," added Agumon, nodding his head sagely. "King Drasil disappeared and no one's seen the Royal Knights in a while. There's a lot of stuff that needs to be done for there to be peace between the real and digital worlds, and we're helping out with that."

"A war?" Urocyomon furrowed his brow. His spear made soft clicks against the slick stone beneath his feet. "I'm pretty sure that I would have heard something about that." Urocyomon paused for a moment. "And who is this 'King Drasil?'"

Agumon and Marcus both looked at him with confusion, though Urocyomon could hardly say that he was at all surprised. The conversation that they've been having so far had been…rather strange to say the least. The two were rather forthcoming about themselves, particularly in regards to their deeds in protecting the digital world, but very little of it made sense to him.

_DATS? Richard Sampson? Spencer Damon? _he had thought during while Agumon and Marcus spoke. _Just who are they? By the sounds of things they're supposed to be pretty big and important figures, but I've never heard of them before._

And now he had something new to wonder about. A being by the name of King Drasil.

_Sounds a little bit like Yggdrasil. Kind of stupid though, shortening the name like that. An imposter? Or someone else entirely? I'll never understand deities. _

"King Drasil was the computer that ruled the digital world," clarified Agumon. "A lot of digimon thought he was a god at the time."

_Ah. Yeah. That _definitely_ sounds like Yggdrasil._

"If that's the case, then he went by a different name around here. He's been called a lot of names ever since the start of the digital world. Sounds like he decided to switch to yet another one after things got rough for him the last time he caused trouble for the digital wo—!"

Urocyomon was abruptly cut off as his foot sunk into a deep puddle. Cursing loudly, Urocyomon snatched his foot from the pool, a shiver crawling up his back and causing the fur on his tail to stand up on end.

"You okay?" asked Marcus.

"Huh?" Urocyomon blinked, taken aback by the question. "Y-Yeah. Just a puddle. A…stupid…puddle." Urocyomon scowled down at the ground. Light shimmered on its surface from the foxfires that hovered in the air, glowing like fireflies.

_How did I miss that?_ he wondered. _I could have sworn that I didn't see anything in my path when I—oh, never mind. It's stupid to dwell on that right now. We've got more important things to worry about._

And yet, for some reason his mind hovered on the incident, refusing to let go of it. Somehow, between stepping into the puddle and pulling out of it, the water had awoken something within him. Something primal and deep. It left him feeling…afraid.

_Get a hold of yourself!_ Shaking his head, Urocyomon, with an effort, tore his thoughts away from the incident and pressed onwards. "Watch your footing," he told the others behind him. The three of them continued onwards in silence.

As they moved, the sense of fright remained rooted. All of a sudden the light at the end of the tunnel looked far less friendly than it should have been, completely losing the bastion of hope that it initially represented.

_There's something very, very wrong here,_ Urocyomon thought, biting at one claw in agitation. _I feel like a Fresh level pup who's afraid of the dark. I haven't been like that since I finally evolved to Rookie, so what the heck is going on?_

Urocyomon got the distinct feeling that one way or another, he was going to find out.

_Stay away from the light,_ he thought sarcastically, trudging onwards.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity the trio made it to the mouth of the cave. Urocyomon took a step out into the light and then suddenly halted. His eyes went wide and shudders ran the length of his body.

"No…no way…" he breathed. "This _can't_ be…"

"What's going on?" asked Marcus as he stepped up next to the silver furred fox digimon. Urocyomon didn't reply, though it wasn't for lack of trying. Words were forming on his mouth, but they were having trouble forming a coherent whole to be understandable. Marcus looked out, trying to see if there was something responsible for the fox's freezing up the way he did. No matter how hard he looked though, there wasn't anything about it that seemed particularly wrong, and there were no visible threats.

_It's a little cold though,_ he thought to himself, his arms prickling with goose pimples as hair stood up on end. _And it feels like there's something more than just a bad chill in the air. Come to think of it, this place feels a bit off. And what's with the color around here? I thought it was light outside when we were inside the cave but now…_

"Boss," spoke up Agumon, drawing to a halt beside his partner. "There's something really, _really_ wrong about this place."

As though in emphasis, the dinosaur digimon pulled his claws close to his body and shivered. Marcus' eyes widened in surprise. He had never seen his partner act this way before. It was as though he were genuinely afraid of the landscape.

"Agumon…"

Looking back out towards the landscape, Marcus resolved to locate whatever it was that was causing such problems. But try as he might, he couldn't see anything visible that looked dangerous. But he could feel that there was something out there. His senses had long been sharpened over his many years of street fighting, and going to the digital world only served to hone them to a razor's edge. There was something out there that spoke of danger and bloodlust, watching them with all the patience of a predator lying in wait. Before Marcus knew it, realization struck him.

It was all in the land. It was in the grass that swayed gently in the bitter wind that blew over them. It was in the finely powdered sand that stretched out before them, and in the low hanging, drooping trees where vines reached towards the ground, appearing as a hangman's noose. It was in their leaves, leaves that were dark gray and covered in deep shadow.

And what was more, it was in the waves that beat upon the sandy beach. The waves that stretched further outwards into a vast, deep, dark ocean.

* * *

A/N: Suzie continues with her development, and in a less than glorious manner even if Atsuo was transferred to another class (though that hardly ends her problems with him). And we continue with the further adventures of Urocyomon, Marcus, and Agumon. Kudos bars to whoever can figure out where they are, though I doubt it's that difficult. :P

'Till next chapter then.

-Crazyeight

* * *

8


	15. War of Roses

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.

Revival

Chapter: 15/ War of Roses

"Where are we?" asked Marcus as he, Agumon, and Urocyomon stood at the mouth of the cave. He looked down at Agumon worriedly. The orange-scaled reptile was positively trembling, though he was doing his best to hide the fact. Try as he might, the number one self-titled 'street fighter' could hardly blame him. Marcus scowled at the landscape, his gaze daring it to try anything…_something_ for him to vent his frustrations on. His every sense was keyed to the max, sensing the danger that beat on the air all around them.

_As bad as it feels for me,_ thought Marcus, gritting his teeth, _it must be even worse for Agumon. Since he's a digimon, he's more sensitive to picking up stuff from the digital world. I can only imagine how it must be affecting him._ _And not just Agumon, but our new friend to._

"Hey," Marcus said, turning to Urocyomon. "Do you know where we are? Agumon wasn't born in the digital world like most digimon, so he's not as up to speed about some of the places here."

Urocyomon nodded slowly, his mouth drawn back in a grimace.

"Yeah…I know where we are. Well, at least I think I do."

"You think?" asked Marcus a little incredulously. Marcus drew one hand into a tight fist. _Shoot. This is one of those times where I wish Keenan or Dad were here. They know a lot more about this place…_

"I say 'think' because I've only heard about it in stories," said Urocyomon. "As far as I know, not many digimon come to a place like this. Those that do come here either by accident or were put here on purpose."

"I don't get it."

"Neither do I. The only thing that I've been told that everyone agrees on so far is that this place," he gestured with one paw at the darkened landscape before them, "is supposed to be some kind of holding area for bad digimon denied reincarnation by Anubismon. Devimon, Piedmon…take your pick. You'll find them all here."

Marcus raised an eyebrow. "Even Demon Lords?"

Urocyomon raised an eyebrow. "How do you know about them?"

"Agumon and I got into a fight with one of them a while ago. Belphemon. He got possessed by a crazy scientist named Kurata…"

"Kuroda?" Urocyomon's eyes widened a little at the name, but a swift shake of Marcus' head silenced his worries.

"Ku-ra-ta," the human said, pronouncing it more slowly. "He's a guy, a human, who caused a lot of problems for the digital world, and that was before he merged with Belphemon. He's the only Demon Lord I know about though. You said 'them'. Does that mean…?"

"There are supposed to be seven total," nodded Urocyomon, feeling a little relieved at his mistake. "Though rumor has it, that the classification has become its own digimon type. I'm sure if we looked hard enough we'd end up finding them all here."

Unconsciously Marcus felt a shudder go through him and immediately berated himself for it. He was supposed to be the strongest fighter. He had no fear.

_As Agumon would say, fear isn't even in my dictionary. _Marcus chuckled dryly, immediately feeling a little bit better for the joke, even if it was at his expense. _Thomas would have followed up by saying that I don't even have a dictionary…_

"What's this place called?" he asked once he felt normal again.

"Dark Area," said Urocyomon simply. "It's got a few other names too, but that's the one that's important. It's digital hell. Abandon all hope, oh ye who enter. The line ends here."

"Do you have to be so melodramatic about it?"

Urocyomon simply glanced at Marcus before stepping away from the cave and onto the sandy beach.

"Hey, where're you going?"

"There still might be a way out," said Urocyomon, bending down and picking up a handful of dull, gray sand. "This place feels a bit…_thin._ I think we can get out of here if I can find the right place."

"What do you mean by that?" asked Marcus as he and Agumon joined him.

"I don't know." Urocyomon frowned as he tried to think of an explanation that they could both understand. "I think…ah! I've been to the human world before, so…do you know about radios?"

Marcus nodded.

"It's sort of like that. Some places in the digital world have soft spots that can go to other places—not just the Data Streams that sweep across the surface level. It's like how if you're close enough you can pick up some information from a broadcasting source. If we can find a spot that's 'close enough' to a part of the digital world we can transmit ourselves into it."

Agumon looked up at Marcus. "Do you think that's possible boss?"

"It sounds like how we got here anyway," said Marcus, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "I don't know much about technology, but that's what the Internet does, right? Transmits things, and the digital world comes from that…" Marcus trailed off before looking back at Urocyomon. "You can do that kind of thing? Get us out of here even if we're in a different world?"

Urocyomon nodded. "It is the primary trait of my species. It's not easy though. Even under normal circumstances."

"I don't like the sound of that…"

"Huh?" Agumon blinked. "Sound of what, boss?"

"Let's just say that the Dark Area doesn't let go of things easily," replied Urocyomon, dropping the sand in his paw back onto the beach. "We'd better get a move on. The dimensional walls here aren't thin enough for what we need to work with."

With that, Urocyomon resumed walking, with Agumon and Marcus following closely behind.

"Hey boss," said Agumon, rubbing his arms together nervously. "We're going to get out of here, right?"

"Hm?" Marcus raised an eyebrow and looked down at his partner. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"I was just…uh…trying to see if you had what it took to keep your employees spirits up. Not that I need any help though. I was thinking of Urocyomon there. Although, now that I think about it, he hasn't said that you were his boss yet…"

"Agumon…" street fighter gave his partner a small, comforting grin. "You can admit to being afraid you know."

"Wha…? I am _not! _Boss! How can you say such a thing! It's…it's impossible that you'd have anyone in your employ who could possibly be afraid—_especially_ me! After all that we've been through together…"

"Easy, Agumon," placated Marcus, patting the dinosaur on the head. "I don't think it's anything to be ashamed about—well, at least in this case anyway. I'll be honest, there's something about this place that sits wrong with me. And it's not just because of the way Urocyomon described it. There's something…" Marcus glanced at a tree sitting a short ways away from them. "…wrong in the air. It's like there's a bad smell or something. You know it's there even if you can't see it."

"Kind of like when we haven't showered for a week, huh boss?"

"Agumon…"

_How familiar,_ thought Urocyomon, his ears twitching slightly as he listened to the duo's conversation. A small smile graced his face. They reminded him a bit of the Tamers back in Shinjuku, more specifically of Takato and Guilmon in their antics.

_Only that's not quite right. The human is a bit more like Kazu in his brashness. In fact, I guess you could say that they're both a bit like Kazu. It's like he partnered with himself. Either that or with Impmon. I can't really tell. But they have the battle craziness of Cyberdramon. That should help them get through this place with no trouble at all. I hope it'll be enough. This place…ugh._ Urocyomon placed one paw on his chest and grimaced. _It feels like it digs at you. Like you could turn a corner and find a ghost, or look at the water and see your worst nightmare._ Urocyomon's tail swished. _Great. Now I'm starting to scare myself. Keep a cool head, Urocyomon. Keep a cool head. I'm our only chance of getting out of here in one piece, and I can't do that if I psyche myself out. Just relax…and concentrate._

Urocyomon took a deep breath and let it out with a sigh. The tension eased back a bit and he returned his attention to locating the proper route for them to follow.

_Weird. So far it seems fixated along this beach. Very close to the water too…_

Urocyomon cast a glance out towards the ocean. Off in the distance he saw something move through the thick fog that permeated the water's surface.

_What was that?_ he wondered, his eyes trying to locate what he had just seen. After a moment he caught sight of it again.

_A beam of darkness. Someone's idea of a reverse watchtower? Weird…

* * *

_

Cyberdramon withdrew from the hole in the ground and landed next to Ryo, his hands morphing from drills back to his normal, clawed hands as his partner's card effect wore off.

"Still nothing," the dragon snarled. Ryo frowned and inspected the hole that the cybernetic dragon had been digging. It was quite deep now, having now become large enough for Cyberdramon to fit in with ease and still leave enough room available for a large-sized Rookie.

"The D-Arc says that Urocyomon's here…" Ryo muttered to himself. He turned to look at the others. "Kenta. What's going on with our visitors? How much more time do we have before they get here?"

"Uh…" Kenta raised his D-Arc and called up the tracking function. "It looks like they're getting pretty close…"

"How close is _close_?" asked Ryo, pulling out his own digivice.

"Hey, I'm doing the best I can here…"

"Except it's not good enough," said Ryo roughly. He immediately regretted it though, seeing the look of frustration flash over Kenta's face.

"Hey!" exclaimed Ayaka, stepping forward. "You don't have to treat him like tha…"

"It's okay, Ayaka," said Kenta, his expression hardening. "Don't worry about it."

"But…" Ayaka looked at the boy worriedly. "…Kenta…"

Kenta's silence spoke volumes, and Ayaka cast an angry glare at Ryo. He had no time to dwell on it though as his digivice's tracking function gave him the position of the two oncoming signals that were charging towards their position.

_Not good. They've picked up their pace. They're in a real hurry now…_

"Looks like we're going to have to stop digging until we've cleared things up with these guys," said Ryo, readying his digivice. "Everyone get ready. We may be in for some trouble here."

Scanning the horizon, Ryo caught sight of two objects sparkling in the light of the digital day heading right towards them.

"Cyberdramon?" Ryo asked. The dragon leaned forward. The map hovering over Ryo's digivice receded and a holographic circle appeared, presenting the image of a digimon. Long, lithe, and armored. Ryo blinked in surprise at it before it receded and appeared again, presenting the second digimon, this one the same as the first.

"Wha…? Crusadermon. What's this…?"

Ryo glanced over to the Royal Knight in surprise, his words dying in his mouth when he saw her standing rigid, hands clenched into tight fists. Ayaka looked at her partner worriedly.

"Crusadermon?" she asked tentatively. The Royal Knight hissed angrily beneath her breath.

"The Knighthood…"

* * *

"Pihpih…" breathed MarineAngemon at the sight before him.

"You're telling me," said Kenta.

Before the group hovered two digimon that were eerily familiar. Pink armor that curved and hooked covered the graceful, swan-like bodies of the two figures, tipped by long, yellow ribbons that appeared decorative but for the Tamers and their partners they knew better. Affixed to both of their right arms was a large Pile Bunker shield. Kenta looked over at Ayaka before following her gaze back to the two digimon and then over to Crusadermon.

_This is too weird,_ he thought. _This is just too weird. It's like looking at a mirror…only without the mirrors._

Three Crusadermon's. _Three Crusadermon's._ Kenta felt a little lightheaded. For the past three years that the only incident that he could recall where they faced multiple versions of any single digimon species had been the Parasimon invasion. However, one thing that spelled the difference was that the Parasimon did not look at all like any of his friends.

_They're not even really Crusadermon,_ he thought as he looked at the stats displayed on his digivice. _LoadKnightmon and RhodoKnightmon. _

"Why the name changes?" Kenta wondered aloud, pushing his glasses up onto his face. "I mean, they're all the same…"

"Who gave this human permission to speak?" asked one of the two new Crusadermon's, angling its armored head in his direction. The digimon spoke with a masculine, fluidic voice that indicated high class and strength.

"I hardly think that it matters in this case, LoadKnightmon" spoke up the other Crusadermon, this one in a feminine voice, though higher pitched compared to Ayaka's partner, and hinted at more than a little bit of smugness to her tone. "I think the question we should be asking them is what are they doing in a restricted area?"

"Restricted area?" asked Ryo, putting on his usual, disarmingly warm grin for the two. "Sorry. We didn't see any signs around…"

"Be silent!" snapped LoadKnightmon sharply. A blur of yellow whipped through the air and a second later a trickle of blood rose from a tiny scratch on Ryo's face, right below his left eye socket. To his credit, the Legendary Tamer didn't flinch and slowly, all the while holding the knight's gaze, raised one arm to wipe away the blood.

LoadKnightmon chuckled.

"This one has steel. I approve. But can the same be said for his companions?"

"What are you two doing here?" growled Crusadermon, getting into a defensive stance.

"My, my," laughed RhodoKnightmon, crossing her arms together. "A bit of fire from the Indifferent Warrior? You are her am I right? You carry the same scent, so I assumed that such was the case…"

"It's me," Crusadermon said carefully. "Although I'm surprised to see you two here. You've evolved since our last encounter."

"Crusadermon?" asked Ayaka guardedly. "You know these two?"

Crusadermon nodded gravely. "Unfortunately."

"Who's that human standing behind you?" asked LoadKnightmon, angling his body in an attempt to get a better view. Don't try to hide, darling. We don't bite."

_Like you went out of your way to prove that so far,_ thought Ayaka, resisting the urge to break her gaze away from the knight to look over at Ryo. She had the distinct feeling that doing so would result in a bad end.

Crusadermon moved protectively in front of Ayaka, making sure to keep her out of the way of her doubles.

"Now, now," said RhodoKnightmon with a chuckle, maneuvering so that she too could get a better look. "Don't be so protective of the child, Crusadermon. That's not like you. After all, she's only a human. She's no good to anyone."

"Hey! I—!"

"Ayaka!" snapped Crusadermon. "Not now. _Please!"_ A moment later, Crusadermon spoke again in a softer tone. _"Please."_

RhodoKnightmon and LoadKnightmon watched this exchange with curiosity, exchanging glances.

"Excuse me," coughed Ryo, taking a step forward. "We're looking for a friend of ours and we were pointed in this direction. We didn't know that anyone had laid any claim to this place…"

"Human," began RhodoKnightmon in a quiet tone. "I do believe that you were told to be _silent."_

Another flick of yellow and the ground split before Ryo's feet, narrowly missing his shoe as it came to rest. For the first time that he could remember, Ryo's heart skipped a beat and he looked the two knight's over, sizing them up.

_Not good. Definitely not good at all._

"Crusadermon," began RhodoKnightmon in a contemptuous tone. "You and your companions have been found trespassing. How do you plead?"

"Plead?" scoffed Crusadermon. "This isn't your territory and you know it!"

"You're right," laughed LoadKnightmon. "It all belongs to your _master!_ The great and mighty Yggdrasil!" LoadKnightmon's laughter tapered off and he fixated the Royal Knight with a hard stare. "And you know something? We're here under _her_ orders. We are to keep watch over this place and make certain that _nothing_ enters or leaves. Nothing is to be touched, and you…" he cast a glance over at the Legendary Tamer standing behind the scar in the ground. "…have touched this place." He returned his attention to Crusadermon. "No exceptions. Now…how do you plead?"

_What is this?_ thought Kenta, his eyes growing with dread. "Ryo…I think we'd better get out of…"

There was a sharp blur and suddenly LoadKnightmon was standing before Kenta, the boy's face reflecting in his helm.

"None of you are going to leave here," he said in a low voice. Kenta felt his body grow cold a split second before he felt something puncture his stomach. Gagging in surprise, Kenta doubled over just in time to see a bloody ribbon pull free from him.

"Pi—!" began MarineAngemon angrily, only to be cut off by a casual backhand smack from LoadKnightmon. The pink fairy digimon struck the ground and rebounded off it, tumbling into the hole Cyberdramon had dug. LoadKnightmon snorted.

"Little ones should know their place…"

**"Biomerge activate!"**

A flash of light and a surge of power snagged LoadKnightmon's attention as words echoed upon the air.

**"Cyberdramon! Biomerge tooo…"**

"Oh my," spoke LoadKnightmon with a hint of humor in his voice. "Someone's trying to be a hero." Disappearing with a flash, LoadKnightmon reappeared in front of the sphere of light and lashed out at it with his Pile Bunker shield. An explosion detonated within the light, and both Ryo and Cyberdramon were thrown to the ground, the surge of energy snapping out just as quickly as it appeared.

"Now, see what you get for trying to resi—?"

LoadKnightmon was cut off abruptly from his speech as a yellow ribbon wrapped itself around his neck and pulled sharply. Twisting, the knight digimon followed the length of the ribbon until he locked gazes with Crusadermon. Although her face was covered, rage beat upon the ribbon, causing it to tremble. Behind her, the human girl, Ayaka, was already raising a card to a pink and yellow digivice, wrath plainly evident in her eyes.

**"Digi-modify!"** Ayaka shouted as sparks flew from the digivice's card slot. **"Speed activate!"**

"Oh dear. It seems we have some trouble on our hands here…"

* * *

Miki stood stock still, frozen in shock as the battle began in earnest in front of her. Her eyes focused first on Kenta where he lay, blood flowing onto the digital ground. He was making low, gagging sounds and clutched his hands close to his wound, trying to stop the flow of blood. All at once an old memory came to her from when the Royal Knights had invaded the real world. UlforceVeedramon had just laid siege to Hypnos, and a stray bullet from the military had come within mere inches of…

"Snap out of it!"

Miki yelped in surprise as pain stabbed into her leg. Looking down, Miki saw Dracmon remove his claw from her bare leg.

"Be-D-D-Dracmon!"

"'Bout time you got my name right for once," the tiny digimon grumbled. "C'mon! Let's not waste any time here! Biomerge us already! Or else we're toast!"

"Got it," said Miki, readying her digivice. White light glowed within its screen and began to expand outwards to envelop the girl and her partner.

"I don't think so," said RhodoKnightmon, seeing the gesture. Grabbing hold of one yellow ribbon, the knight digimon lashed out, cutting vertically.

"Get down!"

"Biomerge acti-!" Miki was abruptly cut off as Ryo slammed into her from the side, bowling them both over just in time to narrowly miss being shorn in two by the razor sharp ribbon. Miki hit the ground with a heavy thud, a lock of hair from her head falling slowly afterwards, showing the only sign of how close she had come to being decapitated.

"Fast on your feet, eh human?" mocked RhodoKnightmon as she advanced on the pair. "We'll see how you do this ti…"

**"Desolation Claw!"**

A beam of light blue energy rocketed through the air, surging towards RhodoKnightmon who leapt upwards to avoid the attack. Turning, the knight glowered at Cyberdramon, who flexed his claws eagerly.

"Battle freak," RhodoKnightmon scoffed. "Fine. If it's battle you desire, you shall have it."

RhodoKnightmon dove forward, only to be abruptly interrupted by the sudden intrusion of Crusadermon as she materialized out of thin air, her leg raised and already spiraling in a brutal kick that slammed directly into her armored face. RhodoKnightmon gave a choked sound as she was sent plummeting away from her opponent, smashing into the ground with tremendous force.

"You will leave the humans _out of this!!!"_ Crusadermon roared, breathing heavily.

"My, my," came the voice of LoadKnightmon. "It would appear that our dear Crusadermon is pushing herself to the extreme here. And all for humans too…"

"What is Yggdrasil's reason for this?" demanded Crusadermon hotly. "It is his own ruling that humans are to be uninvolved in our affairs! You should abide by it and let them be!"

"Times have…changed for the digital world, Crusadermon." LoadKnightmon materialized behind the Royal Knight. "Things aren't what they were when you left the Royal Knights m'lady. I would think that even you would have recognized that much."

Crusadermon spun rapidly, lashing out with her Pile Bunker shield. LoadKnightmon deftly ducked underneath the attack and countered with an uppercut, slamming it home directly on Crusadermon's chin. Crusadermon fell backwards, her body becoming suddenly unresponsive to her commands.

"Crusadermon!" shouted Ayaka. Digging through her deck she pulled out a Rejuvenation card. A yellow ribbon slashed through the air as she did so, and with a cry of surprise, Ayaka dove forward, hitting the ground.

"Who is she, Crusadermon?" asked LoadKnightmon. "The two of you have been rather protective of each other."

"Perhaps they're partners," suggested RhodoKnightmon, staggering to her feet. "Lord Yggdrasil's reports on the humans mentioned the symbiotic relationship that some humans and digimon have with each other. In exchange for protection, humans grant accelerated, but temporary bursts of evolution."

"Doesn't seem to impart much strength in her case," scoffed LoadKnightmon. "But at least now we know why our dear Crusadermon left and appears to have abandoned her title as the 'Indifferent Warrior'. Perhaps we should rectify that?"

A yellow ribbon stiffened and LoadKnightmon grabbed hold of it, slashing it through the air as though it were a sword and began advancing towards Ayaka.

A bolt of blue lightning surged through the air, stabbing into LoadKnightmon before he could even react. The knight let out a cry of pain as the electricity coursed through his body. Smoke rose from his armor as it began to die down, and LoadKnightmon staggered, coughing.

"Wh…wh…what…was that…?" he rasped, struggling to maintain his balance.

"Took the words right out of my mouth," said RhodoKnightmon, her head swiveling around in the direction that the bolt of electricity had come from. "It wasn't any of those Tamers so what…?"

**"Biomerge activate!"**

"Oh, bugger."

Light once again flared into existence around Miki and Ryo as they pulled their digivices close to their chests. The light exploded outwards, connecting with their partners and merging their essence into them. Cyberdramon and Dracmon's bodies shifted and altered, becoming taller and more humanoid in appearance.

**"Dracmon! Biomerge tooo…"**

As Dracmon grew, his body became more voluptuous and feminine. Violet robes materialized around him and one arm began to decay and change into a jagged, virulent clawed limb, clashing with the now otherwise human female-like, and beautiful visage that now dominated the digimon's form. A seductive smile appeared on the woman's face as her eyes locked with LoadKnightmon's. Tattered, black, bat wings sprung from her back as two voices now speaking as one announced the completion of their evolution.

**"…Lilithmon!"**

** "Cyberdramon! Biomerge tooo…"**

Cyberdramon's form took on a more graceful, almost heroic look as his transformation neared its completion. A steel helmet fell over his face, hiding it from view while a large, mechanical arm fitted itself onto his right shoulder. Flexible body armor materialized the length of his form, and a red scarf wrapped itself around his neck. Striking a pose, two voices spoke as one as their digivolution ended.

**"…Justimon!"**

"Two Mega's now," said LoadKnightmon, sounding somewhat amused and excited by their presence. "And one of them is a Demon Lord. Good. This should make things more interesting…"

_"LoadKnightmon,"_ spoke up a powerful, commanding voice within the knight's mind._ "RhodoKnightmon."_

_ Ah!_ LoadKnightmon staggered under the sudden and unexpected intrusion. _Lord Yggdrasil…_

LoadKnightmon barely had time to finish the thought as Lilithmon surged towards him, slashing at him with her decayed right arm.

**"Nazar Nail!"** the mistress of darkness shouted as her claws racked his armored face. LoadKnightmon fell back, slapping the Demon Lord across the side of her face with the flat of his ribbon. Lilithmon cried out in pain, but kept her eyes firmly locked on her target.

"What's wrong pink boy?" she asked seductively, licking at some blood that tricked past her lips from the hit."You're distracted. Your eyes are supposed to be on me only you know."

LoadKnightmon laid a hand on his visor, his fingers tracing the scratch lines that Lilithmon left in his visor. He looked at Lilithmon warily. Her eyes burned with a hunger in them that left him feeling…unsettled.

Justimon landed next to the Demon Lord and raised his mechanical arm.

"Enough joking, Lilithmon," the heroic digimon said in his dual voices of Cyberdramon and Ryo Akiyama. "We've got to finish this fight before Kenta bleeds to death."

Lilithmon blinked, and at once, the hunger in her eyes seemed to disappear.

"Oh yeah. R-Right. Sorry, Ryo."

"Don't apologize, just attack! **Justice Burst!"** Raising his mechanical arm, blue bolts of energy shot outwards, LoadKnightmon deftly knocked them to the side with his Pile Bunker shield.

_"LoadKnightmon!"_ demanded the voice of Yggdrasil in his mind. _"Both you and RhodoKnightmon withdraw immediately!"_

_ But…my lord…_

_ "That is an order!"_

LoadKnightmon hesitated before answering. _Yes. Of course, master._

"RhodoKnightmon!"

"I overheard," the female knight replied, leaping into the air. "It looks like you lucked out. You humans and your pets shall have this round. We have…business to attend to." RhodoKnightmon gave the group a wave. "Tata, for now."

With that, the two knights blurred and disappeared entirely.

_"They're leaving,"_ snarled Cyberdramon's voice from Justimon. From within his data sphere, Ryo nodded.

_"And not a moment too soon," _the Legendary Tamer breathed in relief. _"Crusadermon! Quick! Use your ribbons to stop Kenta's bleeding! I'll go find MarineAngemon!"_

"What about me?" asked Lilithmon, pointing her clawed hand at herself.

_"Stay on guard in case they decide to come back. I'll be right back as soon as I can."_ With that, Justimon leapt into the hole that Cyberdramon had made and disappeared from view, leaving the remaining two Megas to their duties.

* * *

"Just what happened back there?" hissed RhodoKnightmon angrily as she and LoadKnightmon flew through the air. LoadKnightmon shook his head, touching the scars on his helm.

"I do not know. Yggdrasil's order to retreat doesn't make any sense either. However, I'm not too terribly concerned about that. Yggdrasil's reasons are her own, and it is not for us to question them. However…I'm curious as to where that bolt of lightning came from."

"It was a digimon attack, obviously."

"Yes. But from whom? Did you see anyone?"

RhodoKnightmon thought for a moment before shaking her head. "I'm afraid not."

LoadKnightmon narrowed his eyes beneath his helm. "Someone else is here. Someone that we missed."

"Could they be from the distortion?"'

"Who knows?" LoadKnightmon shrugged his shoulders. "But we shall most definitely report this to Yggdrasil, and receive our orders as to what to do about it. And then we shall deal with the humans and their _pets."_

LoadKnightmon's fingers caressed his scars, his voice becoming tipped with anger now.

"Yes…we will. Make no mistake about it…"

* * *

Standing behind a bolder, a figure wearing a tattered brown cloak watched the two knight's fly off, leaving the Tamers behind them.

_Good. They're leaving,_ the figure thought, breathing a sigh of relief as they finally disappeared behind the horizon.

_"They would have left anyway," _spoke up a voice within the figure's mind, causing him to stiffen fearfully. The voice chuckled, sensing the figure's apprehension. _"You violated my orders to not become involved."_

_ But…how could I? You said…_

_ "Yes. So I said, but my orders to you were to stay hidden. With this, we may have been discovered. All of our moves depend on our ability to remain unnoticed."_

_ I'm…sorry. I should have thought first…_

_ "Thinking first was never one of your strong suits, young one. Nevertheless, you should have. What's done is done though. As soon as you are able, you will return. Is that clear?"_

The figure nodded slowly and pulled his cloak closer to his body.

_"Yes…yes it is, GranDracmon."

* * *

_

A/N: A late update. My apologies. The school semester is reaching its climax, and that means lots and lots of assignments in the double digit page range for essays. Not fun, and I have more to do next week too, and an exam following afterwards. So expect updates to be rather slow over the next couple weeks.

A few more bits added to the story, ever complicating the picture. The Knighthood I've thought about using ever since I first pulled Crusadermon into the Tamer group, mainly because she's the only digimon that I know of to have more than two names for a single species of digimon (after five seasons, two of which she appeared in the series creators still can't seem to pin it down). I thought it would be a nice way to develop Crusadermon's character a bit.

Other than that, not too much else to say, except see you next chapter. :P

-Crazyeight

* * *

10


	16. Emotions: Part 1

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.

Revival

Chapter: 16/ Emotions: Part 1

Renamon bounded off the wall that surrounded the Nonaka residence and landed in the yard with a grace and ease that even the most experienced gymnasts would envy.

"Ah. Renamon," greeted Seiko cheerfully from the porch. In one hand, she held a cup of tea. "Did Rika make it to school all right?"

"With very little trouble," nodded Renamon, a small smile on her muzzle. Seiko chuckled, understanding the hidden meaning behind the vulpine digimon's words.

"Ah…to be young," she said, taking a sip from her tea. She glanced down at another cup sitting beside her, filled with the warm, steaming liquid. "I thought I'd take the liberty to prepare some for you."

"Thank you, Seiko," Renamon replied, inclining her head in a polite bow. Not for the first time, Renamon smiled at the ease that the elder woman's name slid off her tongue. Once there had been a time where she would have been more formal with Rika's grandmother, but she had stubbornly insisted that formalities, while she found them nice in 'this day and age' as she put it, were unnecessary between them. It had taken quite some time for Renamon to get used to it, but fortunately, they were both patient.

Walking over, Renamon sat down beside Seiko Hata and took a sip from the offered cup.

"Is the tea good?" asked Seiko.

"Always," the vulpine digimon replied with a content look on her face.

"I'm glad." Sighing, Seiko leaned back a bit on the porch. "You know, back before my friends and I started talking to each other on 'Granny Chat', we used to do this sort of thing a lot. I've always enjoyed having tea with them. It may sound a little old fashioned, but it was always good for relaxing and clearing the air when we had something on our minds. We don't get that as much with technology nowadays." Seiko laughed a little. "But maybe I'm just a little too old and set in my ways."

Renamon took another sip of tea, taking note of Seiko's choice of words. It surprised her to no end as to how shrewd the woman could be.

"I hardly think any human would call you old."

"Why thank you, Renamon. Well, I am young for a grandmother, but I am 52." Seiko smiled and took another sip from her tea. "Not that I feel that way, mind you."

Renamon eyed the matriarch of the Nonaka household with a subtly raised eyebrow. In all the time that she had known Seiko Hata, age had always been the last thing she cared about.

"I must admit that there is something enduring about some habits. It is nice to pause every now and then and step away from the bustle of everyday life."

Seiko nodded and took another sip.

"Seiko," Renamon resumed. "I was wondering if you could clear something up for me."

"I'll do my best," Seiko replied, smiling a little. "What can I help you with, dear?"

"It's about…love."

"Oh? That's a difficult topic."

"As I have found these past few years," Renamon nodded. "When I first came here, I struggled to find where I fit in Rika's life. I feel a part of Rika in ways that cannot be described with words, and I love her…" Renamon paused for but a moment on the word before continuing. "…and yet, she is difficult to read lately. I have difficulty in understanding her actions of late."

"Does this have anything to do with a certain boy that she gave her first kiss to three years ago?"

"It goes deeper than that…"

"The link," nodded Seiko, knowing full well what she was talking about. Her expression became slightly troubled then. "Renamon, it would appear that we both need something cleared up for us. But continue with your concerns first."

Renamon nodded.

"Rika has strong feelings for Takato. Of this I am certain, and I believe that Takato has developed strong feelings for her as well. Yet I have observed her keeping her distance from him. Last night for example, Takato invited her on what I believe to be a date, yet she turned him down. I know that she would be happy if she followed through with her feelings, and yet she doesn't."

Seiko took another sip of tea as she digested Renamon's words.

"The link that she has with Takato…how close are they?"

"As close as I am with Rika." Renamon paused before chuckling. "Well, they can't biomerge…"

"We have our own way," chuckled Seiko. "Otherwise neither Rika or Takato would be alive today."

"Ahhh…yes," observed Renamon in an amused tone. "I had…witnessed one such occurrence during my explorations of Shinjuku."

Seiko looked up at Renamon, startled. Seeing the expression on the woman's face, Renamon sought to clarify.

"I happened to be passing a building—a 'Love Hotel' if I remember the sign correctly—and I saw two humans, a male and a female, up against a window and they were…"

The sound of Seiko's laughter caused Renamon to pause in her story, and she furrowed her brow in confusion.

"I fail to see what is so funny about it."

"Sorry," apologized Seiko. "It's just… Oh, my. This is the first time that I've heard you talk about that. It…caught me off guard. I never expected it."

"Humans…" Renamon shook her head in mild annoyance. "You all react so strangely to the topic of sex."

"So you have discussed it with someone? To be honest I wouldn't have expected Rika to be the one who…"

"I…asked Henry about it," supplied Renamon. "I had been heading home after the encounter when I saw him on the roof, practicing. He was…most evasive about the subject. Throughout the conversation I thought I was talking to Takato and not Henry." Renamon's tail twitched ever so slightly as she remembered Henry's embarrassed coughs, blushing, and stammers. She was quite grateful that Terriermon wasn't there at the time, though she had no doubt that the mischievous rabbit-dog digimon would have been far more educational than what Henry, the human of the pair, would have been.

Seiko nodded, understanding what the kitsune digimon meant.

"Children his age are only just beginning to understand that sort of thing, so it's natural that some of them would become embarrassed about it. I think it speaks well for his personality. I don't think he'd treat that sort of thing lightly. Sex is a very private, very…_intimate_…matter to deal with for all parties concerned. As with relationships, you bare yourself and become vulnerable. There are no 'clothes', literally or metaphorically to hide behind."

Renamon rolled the thought in her mind for a moment.

"But Rika has already been through that."

Seiko raised an eyebrow. "Excuse me?"

"When she and I accepted each other and biomerged," Renamon clarified. "She bared everything she was to me. I believe it would be the same thing with Takato."

"You don't sound certain."

Renamon frowned. "I must admit to not understanding the full nature of their connection. Neither of them talk about it much. It is, as you said, a 'private matter'. I have observed them speaking to each other with their minds."

_…And shared dreams,_ added Renamon mentally, remembering the problems that had caused some strife between the two friends. The vulpine digimon narrowed her eyes as she thought back to that time. She couldn't remember the last time she had seen Rika get so angry with Takato.

_The timing couldn't have been worse…_

"I can't imagine it would be easy," said Seiko, "sharing that much of yourself with another person. Rika tells me that she can turn the link on and off as she pleases."

"Yes…though it took some practice."

"I take it that was the reason behind her rather wild temper at Takato before? I remember a time when she became angry at the very mention of him."

"I had just been thinking about that myself," said Renamon, tracing one claw on the surface of her teacup. Some of the liquid still remained, though it was now in such low quantity that it could barely retain its heat beyond lukewarm. "Has she discussed anything about it with you?"

"I asked, but she didn't want to say anything. Her mother though…Rumiko was able to reach her and things seemed to calm down after that." Seiko paused to take another sip. "I didn't pry once they set things right between them. She continues to think fondly of him, and based on what you told me she still loves him. Maybe they just need time. If their connection is as close as you say it is then perhaps it's only natural that they would be like this. With all the changes that their bodies have gone through—are still going through—it would be reasonable. Things at fifteen for a person aren't the same as when they are at twelve…or in Rika's case when she was thirteen. Rika is a bit of a late bloomer compared to her mother."

"I…see."

"Just have faith in them. Whether those two get together is entirely up to them. Rika's got a good head on her shoulders, and Takato's a kind, smart boy…"

"Well…smart is debatable," chuckled Renamon.

"But he has a good heart. When they're ready they'll decide for themselves what to do. There's no need to rush. The heart, I've found, can be not only tricky, but dangerous if you don't tread cautiously."

Renamon nodded, remembering an incident that seemed almost an eternity ago when Takato's heart overpowered him. In many ways he continued to pay for unleashing the monster known as Megidramon upon an unsuspecting digital world.

_We of all people know the risks of pushing ourselves too far. Love can be just as terrifying as it is beautiful. Perhaps Rika wishes to understand that for herself before going further…_

"Thank you, Seiko," Renamon said after a moment of quiet thought. "You have given me much to think about."

"You're quite welcome," said Seiko, taking another sip of tea. Renamon smiled.

_Perhaps there is reason why some habits are enduring…

* * *

_

Marcus trudged across the gray, sand-filled beach, glowering at the landscape ahead of him. Agitation dug at his nerves with all the finesse and subtlety of an insect chewing away at his skin. It was getting to the point where he was starting to wish that there were some actual insects doing that, if anything just so that he would have something to vent his frustrations on. The cloudy, overcast skies of the Dark Area were oppressive, making him feel as though he were being watched from all sides. The fact that nothing was happening only served to aggravate his problem.

_I'm starting to get tired of this,_ he thought to himself, glowering at the trees and their low hanging veins that seemed to beckon him to go towards them. There was only so much that he could take, being at a nigh constant state of battle-readiness and having nowhere to unleash it upon.

Marcus looked up at the sky, trying to find some sign of cloud breakage, but failing.

_This really is digital hell, isn't it?_ he wondered._ I haven't been here for very long, and already I'm feeling a bit tired of feeling on edge._

"I bet this is only the tip of the iceberg…"

"You say something, boss?" asked Agumon.

"Just thinking, Agumon. Trying to keep an open mind, really."

"Oh. Maybe you should be careful about that, boss. You don't know if something will wander in."

Marcus looked down at his partner with a startled expression.

"What?"

"Did I say something wrong?" asked Agumon, flinching a little.

"No. I mean…that…can't happen…can it?"

"I don't know," said Urocyomon from next to them. "Maybe you should keep an open mind."

"That's not funny."

"I wasn't trying to be." Urocyomon wiped a paw across his brow. "By the Sovereign…does this beach ever end?"

"You don't know?" asked Marcus. "I thought you said that you knew about this place."

"I only _heard_ about it. Not many digimon come here and live to tell the tale you know. In fact, the stories usually say that you have to be _dead_ first just to get in, and there have been only a few exceptions…namely our situation for example. But I have no prior experience here. I…" Urocyomon clutched at his head and ruffled his fur. "…Sovereign," he cursed. "I need a break."

"Well, I suppose here is as good a place as any. It's a little out in the open, but I haven't seen any digimon nearby."

"And it looks a lot better than those trees back there," said Agumon, throwing a claw over his shoulder. "I don't know about you, but those things creep me out."

Urocyomon scowled at the trees in agreement and sat down heavily on the sand. Marcus and Agumon did likewise. Marcus looked out over the ocean thoughtfully. It looked so vast and deep that it seemed to stretch on forever.

_Dad and I visited a place like this before he disappeared into the digital world. Only it was nicer looking and didn't look so…what? I don't know really…it's like I could get lost stepping out there for even just a casual swim and never find my way back to shore. Any shore._ Marcus narrowed his eyes and shook his head. _There I go again. I'm psyching myself out here. What's up with that? I'm the number one street fighter of the digital world, right? There's nothing that I'm afraid of._

And yet, there stood the dark ocean, staring him in the eyes and begging the question with slow, gentle waves that sounded almost like quiet, amused laughter.

_Everything?_

"I'm thirsty," said Marcus. Getting to his feet, the street fighter sauntered over to the ocean and dipped one hand into its murky depths. He paused briefly, his first thought wondering if this ocean would be salt water like back home, or if he were likely to pick something up from this place. However, in all of his experience in the digital world he had never once encountered a drop of water, even from an ocean that had the remotest trace of salt in it. Indeed even digital fishes that resembled real life animals that thrived only in salt water environs took to it without any trouble. As for picking up anything...

Marcus stared at the water in his cupped hand for a moment, looking at his reflection. The water felt cool to the touch and looked quite refreshing. All at once the thirst he was feeling seemed to intensify, but only in the slightest.

_Nothing ventured, nothing gained,_ he thought, taking a sip. The water rushed down his throat as gently and as easily as anything else. It offered no taste, but it was refreshing and it cooled his thirst. Waving his hand to disperse water droplets on the sand, Marcus went back over to Agumon.

"Is it any good, boss?"

"If I don't die or get sick I'd say it's as good as we're going to get," said Marcus. "But until we know for sure, I don't want you to drink anything from it."

"Got it."

"So what's he up to?" Marcus asked, pointing to Urocyomon. The silver furred fox was tracing a circle in the sand, muttering something under his breath as he did so. Agumon shrugged.

"He's probably trying to find a way out like he did in the cave."

"I hope he finds a way out soon."

Agumon nodded in agreement and unconsciously rubbed his arms.

"I'm bored…"

Marcus chuckled. "You and me both, Agumon."

Grumbling slightly, Agumon picked up a nearby rock between his claws and elected to relieve his boredom by pitching it at the vast body of water ahead of them. The rock skipped on the surface a few times, sending off ripples racing across its surface before disappearing entirely.

"Agumon…I don't think that's a good idea."

"Why not, boss? I did this a lot in the digital world."

"Yeah, but that was the digital world. This place is different. I don't want to wake anything up."

"All right, boss," said Agumon, shrugging his shoulders. "If that's what you say."

With that, the orange scaled reptilian digimon plopped himself back down on the ground, placing his head in his hands.

"I hope we get moving soon," he grumbled. "I want to get out of here."

"Don't worry, Agumon," said Marcus with a cheerful grin. "We've never met anything that kept us down for very long. Just you watch. We'll get out of here and then we'll be back to keeping the peace in the digital world."

_Yeah…that's right,_ he thought. _Keeping the peace._

Marcus lay down on the beach, gazing up at the sky, his cheerful smile vanishing and becoming more thoughtful.

_Have we really done that though?_ he wondered. _Sure, we've been taking on all sorts of rogue digimon looking for a fight, but the digital world is a big place. Ahhh…what am I saying? Dad pulled off a lot when he was travelling around here, and I'm his son. There's nothing that I can't do as long as I put my mind and my fist to it. I swore that I'd make things right in the digital world, and that's what I intend to do. And Marcos Damon never breaks his word!_

The exhausted sigh of Urocyomon caught his attention.

"What's up?"

"Nothing," Urocyomon muttered, brushing one paw over his head. "Just…more of the same."

Marcus raised an eyebrow as both he and Agumon got to their feet.

"What do you mean?"

"Just…this. I don't understand it. I've extended my senses around me, and all I'm picking up is the same general thinness in the dimensional wall on this beach. That's it. Nowhere else…at least nowhere else that's close. Not that being here seems to be helpful. The walls aren't thin enough for us to slip through."

"So why don't we try somewhere else?"

Urocyomon did not look at all amused by Marcus' suggestion.

"Do you want to test the tree line? At least out here we can see if there's someone else. Ugh." Urocyomon's tail lashed the air as he drew himself to his feet. "If only I had more power…" he mused, looking at his spear. "I could break through the barriers if I did."

Chewing in agitation on one claw, Urocyomon glared at his spear.

_Gyōjamon gave this to me…it's the heirloom that gets passed down through my species, but I have no idea how to use it. I can't do anything with it. I can't do anything without it either._

"Hmmm…" Marcus looked down at his fist. "Power, huh? Can you use me and Agumon for that?"

"Huh?"

"Agumon and I have a lot of power from having fought so much against other digimon. I think we can pull something off."

Urocyomon thought about it for a second before nodding.

"Didn't quite think of that…using a Tamer and his bond between his partner as a way to generate power…mainly because I've never done it before. I don't know quite what to do though. It'll be risky."

Marcus grinned and glanced over at Agumon before slamming one fist into an open palm.

"Risk is our middle name."

"Fine. Now let's see…" Urocyomon thought through what he knew about the relationship between humans and digimon before coming to a decision. "Can I see your digivice?"

"Sure." Reaching behind him, Marcus pulled out a black rectangular device with orange trim and a green colored screen sporting a ring-like design at its bottom. Urocyomon took the digivice with a raised eyebrow.

"Weird. I thought Tamers got something that looked…arc shaped. This just looks like a block or something."

"This is how they've always been for me and my friends," said Marcus. "Hey. What's this that you've been saying about Tamers by the way?"

"It sounds like a kind of animal trainer," supplied Agumon, attempting to be helpful.

"I kind of got that, Agumon…"

"There are a lot of inconsistencies going on here," mused Urocyomon. "All I know is, back in the human world humans with digimon partners are called Tamers, and their digivices look a lot different than this and allow for manipulation and modification of a digimon's data. They can also merge human and digimon together…"

"Merge, huh?" Marcus raised an eyebrow. "We've seen humans like that before. They were called _Bio Hybrids._ They weren't exactly friendly people."

"…And there are those inconsistencies again." Urocyomon frowned. Something wasn't right. "You say that you've never heard of Hypnos before…"

"That's right," nodded Marcus. "But what's that have to do with anything?"

Urocyomon shook his head. "Nothing for now. Let's just focus on getting out of here. Your digivice looks different from what I've seen, but I'm hoping that the principles remain the same. From what I've heard, they're built around communication and wish granting by the Ancient Ones…the Digignomes."

"Wish granting, huh?" Marcus laughed lightly. "All right. I wish for a way out of this place. How about that?"

Marcus stood there silently, waiting for his words to bear fruit before laughing again.

"Right. I wouldn't depend on wishes to get out of this place. Guys like us are better off making our way with our own hands. We'll find a way out of here no matter what it takes."

Urocyomon shrugged and dropped the digivice onto the ground.

"My experience has spoken otherwise. The digital world is built rather strangely. It's even mimicked the human world before…or so I've been told. And there are many, _many_ worlds out there…"

Urocyomon's mind seized on that thought, and a connection sparked.

_Wha…? Could it be?_

"Hey. Urocyomon. Are you okay?"

"Huh? Oh." Urocyomon shook his head to clear it. "Yeah. I'm fine. Just got caught up in my own thoughts. Now let's see…" Placing the point of his spear next to the digivice, Urocyomon traced a circle around it, his mind drawing on his lessons. Marcus watched him as the circle connected and he began sketching intricate designs around it. Within scant seconds, the silver furred fox was finished.

"Okay," he breathed, bringing his paws together. "Let's do this…"

Bending down, Urocyomon placed his claws on either side of the digivice, and the ring he drew around it flared with light. Urocyomon winced as the light flooded him, giving him the strangest sensation that his own digi-core was being illuminated.

_Wow…this is…wow. I can't believe that this is what's inside of a digivice… I never thought… _Urocyomon frowned. _Wait. Hold on…_

Closing his eyes, Urocyomon focused his attention into the digivice. Picturing the light within his mind's eye, He felt something forming. Something that _writhed_ with darkness. _Something's…wrong…_

The dark seed flared suddenly, and Urocyomon's hands sprang away from the circle. The light it emanated died immediately, and Urocyomon took a step back, his eyes wide and wary.

"Urocyomon?" asked Marcus.

Urocyomon glanced up at Marcus and Agumon, disbelief in his eyes before looking down at the digivice. "W…Wha…What's going o—?"

"Well…well…well…" laughed a voice from the direction of the ocean. Turning, the trio found a group of figures rising from the depths of the ocean, heading in their direction. "It appears that we have some visitors. Some…important visitors at that…"

"Uh oh…"

Marcus looked over at Urocyomon with a raised eyebrow.

"Looks like we have some company, boss," said Agumon, dropping into a defensive stance.

"I picked up on that," said Marcus, looking over at the figures as they drew nearer. Their bodies were…strange to say the least, appearing as little more than moving shadows or mists with glowing eyes. They were tall, within human range, but they were strangely distorted and hunched, lacking in any discerning features. They just appeared like…mist. "Urocyomon. I know what you've said about not knowing anything about this place, but I don't suppose that you know something about these guys."

"I don't know," said Urocyomon. The fur at the base of his tail was rising, starting to poof outwards. Gripping his spear he pointed it in the direction of the closest approaching creature. "But I do know that these guys are setting my instincts off like tomorrow's apocalypse."

"I've got to agree with him on that, boss," chimed in Agumon. "Those guys are bad, no question about it. They aren't here to say hi or give us fried eggs."

"Now, now," whispered one of the creatures as they stepped out onto the shore. "We have no desire to harm you. We're only curious as to how you came here. You have the warmth of the other world about you. Not many come here from the other side. We would so very much like to know how you came here." More of the shadow creatures stepped out of the ocean, focusing their attention on the trio. One of them glanced at Urocyomon, and his eyes flared briefly.

"We have a Border Guard…"

"Oh?" The foremost shadow creature followed his companions gaze. "My, my. So that explains their presence. Our master will be most pleased to know about this discovery. We haven't seen a catch like this since the Child of Light." A series of clicks resounded upon the air as the shadow creatures appeared to become more excited, spreading out and stamping their feet.

"Boss," warned Agumon. "They're flanking us."

"Tell me something I don't know," replied Marcus, snatching up his digivice. "Listen you guys. You're going to want to get back into your soup bowl before I get serious. Because I'm the number one street fighter in the digital world, and I show no mercy!"

The shadow creature's clicking slowed a little, and the lead one waved a claw at Marcus dismissively.

"We recognize no titles around here, human. Digidestined, Demon Lord, human or digimon…you are nothing to us. We have no interest in you. Only the Undersea Master matters. Him and the Dark Ocean where all sin dwells."

"But still," spoke up one of the shadow creatures. "What do we do with him? He is a Chosen One after all…"

"He is less than nothing. Only the Guard matters. Dispose of him and his pet of a partner. We have no use for them."

The creatures advanced now, claws raised. The clicking resumed anew and Marcus grated his teeth angrily.

"I warned you guys," he said, raising one fist and pointing it at one of the shadow creatures. It paused, as though confused by the gesture. Marcus' eyes flashed and he charged forward. _"It's fightin' time again!"_

The shout startled the shadow creatures, leaving them with no time to defend themselves. Marcus' fist slammed home into the closest shadow creature, sending it flying into its companions with tremendous force. Fire burst around Marcus' fist and he brought his digivice to bear in front of it.

"Last chance," he said, grinning like a tiger. All clicking from the creatures was gone now and all attention was focused on Marcus. A heavy atmosphere settled over the battlefield and as though it had been a signal the creatures began to advance again.

_They're serious now,_ thought Marcus. He didn't know how he knew, but he felt within the depths of his soul that this time all pretences and games were done. Whatever they had planned for him and Agumon was gone. Now they would move with every intention of seeing him dead.

"All right…let's do this. _DNA…__**CHARGE!!!"**_

Marcus grinned confidently as the energy flowed from his hand and into his digivice. The shadow creatures were now backing up a bit.

_Yeah…they know what's coming. And now they'll know that me and Agumon are not the kind of guys they can mess wi…_

Suddenly, black fire flared around Marcus' digivice and exploded outwards, engulfing Agumon and causing him to transform.

"Wha…?" gasped Marcus as the fire intensified. "DNA Full charge? But I didn't…"

"Agumon! Warp digivolve tooo…"

Agumon's body lengthened and grew to enormous size. His skull enlarged and bony spurs shot out from his skin, tearing flesh and causing it to sag away from his body like limp curtains. Data shattered and was drawn into the digimon's skeleton as he continued to grow, thickening them. The creature's shadow fell over the stunned group, shadow creature, digimon, and human alike as they stared up at the massive monster that now roared up to the cold sky, finishing its evolution to the Ultimate level.

"…SKULLGREYMON!"

* * *

A/N: So the due date for one of my essays was pushed back by a few more days, allowing me some small measure of free time to update for this week.

I had been thinking a little bit about how to introduce Marcus to the Tamers. There seems to be a general consensus to have him fight the Tamers (and what the hell. I have to admit to wanting it to). However, how to do it was something I struggled with, since I couldn't conceive of Marcus just out and out attacking the group since he tended to not get into fights unless he was preserving the peace, his turf was invaded, he was attacked, or a digimon was on the rampage (at least, that's how he went about business in the show…albeit after the first episode). Then, while plotting out the chapter I thought about Renamon and Seiko's conversation, and I thought I could use it as a setup for what happened in the Dark Ocean part of the story and to show the corrupting influence it has. You don't walk away from that place untouched, and I think it would be a good place for Marcus to start off with some character development.

Anyway, projects for school continue apace, so I don't know when the next update will be. I'm going to have to play it by ear and see what happens.

'Till next chapter.

-Crazyeight

* * *

10


	17. Emotions: Part 2

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.

Revival

Chapter: 17/ Emotions: Part 2

"Mayumi…calm down. Mayumi…" Janyu Wong sighed and massaged his eyes as he listened to the worried voice of his wife on his office phone. "All right. Just wait until I get out from work and we'll sort everything out then, all right?"

A small, tired smile drew across the man's face as over the phone, Mayumi Wong spoke an affirmative.

"All right. I'll see you later. All right. Bye."

Gorou "Shibumi" Mizuno looked at Janyu with a concerned look as he finished swallowing some ramen.

"A little trouble in paradise?"

"It's Suzie. She's…had a fight."

"Sounds like a perfectly normal thing to me."

Janyu cocked an eyebrow at his friend, indicating that the situation was not a laughing matter.

"I wasn't trying to joke, Janyu," placated Shibumi, digging his chopsticks into his ramen once more. "The last time I was her age, fights with other students was part the course. No pun intended."

"I remember," nodded Janyu, thinking back on his own childhood. "Still…I'd rather that Suzie—that _any_ of my children didn't have to deal with that sort of thing."

"Isn't that why you urged Henry to take up martial arts?" Shibumi asked, sipping up a stray noodle. "Jaarin and Rinchie didn't study that sort of thing if I recall. Henry's the exception…"

"And I told you the reasons behind that," frowned Janyu. "There was a neighborhood bully and I felt that he needed to defend himself…"

"Are we talking about your choices as a parent, or about how you want to protect them?" asked Shibumi. "I should point out that I don't have kids. I don't have a girlfriend either come to think about it."

"That's because, as you put it yourself, your 'true love' was always binary code."

Shibumi smiled and looked over at the figure of a woman with shortly cropped, blond hair standing at the door to Janyu's office, a small grin on her face.

"Love comes in many different forms," chuckled Shibumi. "I had a hard time forming relationships in high school too. Though some of that now has to do with my having been in a coma before the D-Reaper crisis happened. And after that…well, there was no rest for the weary."

"I can understand that," nodded Daisy as she pulled up a chair and sat down. "I couldn't help but overhear. I'm sorry."

"Thank you," sighed Janyu, running a hand through his hair. "I suppose that I'm just a little old fashioned. I've been putting off teaching her martial arts when I first heard she was having trouble. I should have been more proactive in that area. Henry's teacher wouldn't have minded taking her in. He likes working with children."

"I got my daughter into that once," said Daisy, leaning back into her chair. "She was a little too wild though. Couldn't settle down. If anything her fights kept getting more frequent."

"Suzie's not like that," frowned Janyu. Daisy held out a placating hand and gave the man an apologetic smile.

"Sorry. I didn't mean to imply that she was or anything. I guess it depends a little on the teacher. But sometimes even they can't do anything and suddenly you've given weapons to a kid to hurt the world with. Suzie and my daughter are two completely different people, but…I don't know." Daisy's expression became somber. "As a Tamer she's got to be under a lot of stress, and having it added to by what we call everyday life… I can't help but think that, without the proper tools, she could go off at any moment like a gun. This could be a warning sign you know. She's at the threshold of those critical years where she'll start changing. She could use someone to help her with that."

Janyu nodded reluctantly. Although Daisy didn't say it, he was quick to remember the Tamers reports about the state of digimon when they were exposed to intense emotions. Henry had spoken to him briefly about it a few years ago after the events of the D-Reaper and the Parasimon invasion, about how he himself had nearly lost control and hurt his friends as a result. Takato had likewise gone through the same thing and the results were not something that he wanted to dwell upon.

_Suzie needs me as her father just as much as she, as a Tamer, needs me as a programmer. It probably hasn't been easy for her, being the youngest child and living under the supervision of her family…everyone making sure that she didn't have to deal with all the dangers that they dealt with on a regular basis. _Janyu sighed mentally. _It's times like these that make me wonder if I'm really cut out to be a father…_

As his thought process trailed off, an alarm sounded, cutting across his tension like a knife. In an instant, Janyu knew what it was.

"Massive data surge from the digital world," he said, quickly identifying the type of alarm being used. "Something's happening to the children over there."

* * *

As the three Monster Makers rushed to their work, Itsuya Takahashi calmly and casually strode down the hall leading the Janyu Wong's office, pushing his glasses up onto his face thoughtfully.

_…Onto phase two…

* * *

_

"Pihpihpih?" asked MarineAngemon with a worried expression on his face as he looked up at his partner. Kenta pulled himself into a sitting position with a groan as Crusadermon retracted her ribbons.

"I'm okay, buddy," Kenta replied, forcing a smile on his face. "Those hearts of yours always come in handy…"

"Pihpihpuh…" MarineAngemon said, looking down with an ashamed look on his face. Kenta fixed him with an alarmed look.

"MarineAngemon! You shouldn't listen to Kazu when he says that!"

"That's right," said Ayaka, settling a hand on the fairy's head and rubbing it. She gave him a comforting smile. "Real men don't care about girly hearts. That's why the two of you are partners."

"Pih…"

Ayaka scowled and glanced at Kenta.

"Remind me to have a talk with your friend when we get back…"

"He was just joking when he said that stuff," grumbled Kenta, pulling MarineAngemon into a companionable hug. Ayaka shrugged, not really looking convinced but not wanting to pursue the issue any further.

"Well, either way," Ayaka reached out and pinched MarineAngemon's cheek, "this little guy has earned himself some ice cream when we get home. My treat for the mon that healed up my boyfriend."

"What about me?"

Ayaka grinned and leaned in to give Kenta a light kiss on the lips, causing him to blush deeply. Grinning, Ayaka moved closer until they were cheek to cheek.

"I have a 'special' treat for you later," she whispered seductively. Kenta's eyes shot wide while Crusadermon rolled her eyes beneath her helm.

"It would behoove you two to at least be more quiet about it this time," the Royal Knight said irritably. "I don't want to try distracting either of your parents while you clean yourselves up."

Ayaka and Kenta's eyes both shot over to Crusadermon in surprise, their mouths opening to stop her words. Alas, as Lilithmon's expression showed, the damage was already done.

"Oh—_ho!"_ exclaimed Miki's voice from Lilithmon's lips. "What is _this_ that she's talking about now? Have you two…?"

_"No!"_ shouted Ayaka and Kenta together, their faces virtually flaming now. Lilithmon chuckled.

"That sounds like a pretty specific denial there. I think you're lying. What do you think Ryo?"

Ryo Akiyama, sitting next to Cyberdramon beside the hole in the ground, looked up at the group. Lilithmon's smile slipped a little at the expression on his face.

"Hey…is everything all right?"

"Is Kenta okay?" he asked.

"Yeah. Absolutely. He's fine. Can't you tell?" For emphasis, Lilithmon pointed at Kenta. "I mean…he looks a little feverish, but that's only because he and Ayaka…"

_"Miki!"_ the two shouted together again. Lilithmon laughed.

"See? He can still yell with the best of them. He's fine."

"Then I guess I'm fine," said Ryo, getting to his feet. "All right. Let's take stock of the situation." Pulling out his digivice, Ryo activated the holographic scanning system. "Urocyomon's signal still leads here, so there must be a series of caves beneath us."

"How do we know that it's not just Urocyomon's data just floating around because he's been destroyed?" asked Ayaka. All eyes turned on her, and the girl shifted uncomfortably. "I'm just suggesting the possibility…"

"It's a good one though," nodded Ryo. "The signal's too focused though, and our digivices don't normally pick up deleted digimon, and since we haven't reached the source of the signal we can't say anything's certain about him." Ryo frowned. _I really wish these things came with instruction manuals. I would like to know how to get a better idea of _where_ Urocyomon's located or if we're only following his ghost._ "Kenta." Ryo looked at his bespectacled friend. "See if you can get in touch with Hypnos and ask them about this. Maybe they can help give us a better picture. In the meantime…" Ryo pulled out a card from his deck with a drill icon emblazoned on it. "Cyberdramon?"

The cybernetic dragon nodded in response.

"Hey," said Lilithmon, pointing at herself. "What about the rest of us?"

"The rest of you should stay on guard in case those other Crusadermon come back for round two. That's something else, Kenta. Let Hypnos know about that. I want them to get us out of here on a moment's notice if those two even look like they're coming back."

"What?" exclaimed Ayaka angrily. "We're just going to pack up our bags and throw in the towel when we're _this_ close to finishing the job? What's the deal?"

Ryo's only reply was to slash his card through his digivice, transforming Cyberdramon's hands into twin sets of drills. Without a word, the Legendary Tamer climbed onto his partner's back and they flew down into the hole to resume their duty.

"What the heck is _that_ about?" grumbled Ayaka. Lilithmon and Kenta both shrugged their shoulders, having no answer that could satisfy the coppery haired girl. Crusadermon, for her part, did not reply, but her mind was working on the problem all the same. Glancing down at her ribbons, she grimaced beneath her helm. Kenta's blood stained it from when she had to use it as a makeshift bandage to stop the bleeding. Dark red. It was an unsightly color even by her standards, follower of the rose that she was. And what was more, to feel it seeping into her weapons, knowing that one just like them had done the deed left her with a strange sense of uneasiness. It hadn't been the first time that she held a human's life in her hands, as she had strangled Ayaka before, but this time had been far worse in comparison. The liquid had been hot and sticky, almost as though it had a life of its own. Life that nearly drained out of Kenta…

Yes. She believed that she knew what was going through Ryo's mind.

_He looks a little pale,_ Crusadermon observed. Feeling agitated, she pulled her ribbons out of her sight and walked over to Kenta and Ayaka.

"My apologies," she said, dropping down to one knee, causing the two to blink in surprise.

"Um…for what?"

"I did not move fast enough to protect you," Crusadermon clarified. "I knew who they were, and I did nothing until they acted. I was foolish."

"Crusadermon…" Ayaka shook her head. "I'm a little confused about all of this. You knew those two…"

Crusadermon nodded. "They are part of a subsection of the Royal Knights known as the Knighthood. They're supposed to raise digimon to replace Royal Knights in the event that they fall in the line of duty. As impossible as it seems, it is unavoidable. My former master implemented them a short while after I was chosen to be a part of the Royal Knights in response to the fall of a previous Crusadermon in a part of the digital world that is now ruled by three Celestials."

"Three Celestials?" asked Kenta, raising an eyebrow.

"Three angelic digimon: Ophanimon, Seraphimon, and Cherubimon." Crusadermon paused before continuing. "Lumemon might know who I am referring to. He hailed from that part of the digital world…"

"Except he don't remember that part of his life anymore," spoke up Lilithmon in Dracmon's voice. "I know who you mean though. I come from that area, remember? I heard stories about how a Crusadermon and a Dynasmon wrecked the place and were stopped by the Ten Legendary Warriors. But that was before my time so I can't vouch for anything I heard…"

Crusadermon waved a dismissive hand.

"The two that we encountered were originally Knightmon striving to take my place. They were…uncommonly bloodthirsty and far too efficient for what they did. The last thing I heard about them, Yggdrasil did not consider them ready to take on the title of 'Indifferent Warrior.'"

"I seem to remember them saying "the situation has changed"," said Dracmon's voice dryly as Lilithmon folded her arms beneath her breasts. "The whole Project X thing that your boss let loose really messed things up in the digital world. I don't think everything else that was going on at the same time with Oni helped things at all."

"The digital world has changed," agreed Crusadermon. "But in all this time we haven't discovered the extent of its changes. To date, all we've been able to explore has just been the surface level. Nonetheless…" Crusadermon returned her attention to Ayaka and Kenta. "…I was negligent in my duty to you, Ayaka. I knew what LoadKnightmon and RhodoKnightmon were capable of, and I did not act against them."

"Crusadermon…" Ayaka rolled her eyes. Kenta gave a soft laugh.

"Don't beat yourself up too much over it," eased Kenta. "MarineAngemon healed me up and Ryo's got a plan for when they come back. We know what to expect now and no one got hurt…er…I mean…ki—uh…"

"Helpful as ever, Kenta," groaned Ayaka, palming her forehead. "Well, he's right about one thing. Don't blame yourself for what happened. We've got a job to do, and we're going to do it even if they come back. I don't care what Ryo says, I'm not ready to just take off at a moment's notice just because those guys might decide to come back for another beating. If they show their faces around here again, I'm going to beat the living daylights out of them!"

MarineAngemon looked at Ayaka with a raised eyebrow.

"Pihpuh…"

"I _know_ they wear helmets! I wasn't speaking literally…"

The group laughed at that, and the sound broke up the tension from the recent battle a little. Sighing, Lilithmon turned towards the hole, listening to the high-pitched whine of Cyberdramon as he continued to drill. Sauntering over to the tunnel, Lilithmon glanced down it, whistling to herself.

_Sure is pretty deep,_ she thought. _And he just keeps on going. I'm starting to wonder he's ever going to hit one of those tunnels that he was talking about. He's already so far down there that I can't see him really well…_

Lilithmon frowned and folded her arms beneath her breasts again, letting their weight sit there for a moment. She shifted her weight onto one leg for a moment as she continued to watch Ryo's progress, and shifted again as she began to grow uncomfortable.

_"Hey…Dracmon? Do you feel…I don't know…weird at all?"_

_ "You mean besides the fact that I have assets that I didn't think I would have when I digivolved to Mega?"_

_ "You're still complaining about that? I thought you said that digimon didn't have genders! And you know, I don't get how that works. I mean, it looks pretty obvious that you _have_ genders…"_

_ "Are you going to be getting to your point sometime in the next year, Miki?"_ Dracmon asked dryly. Miki grunted.

_Right…Beanie."_

_ "Hey!"_

_ "…Anyway…I don't know. I'm looking down there and I feel…I don't know. I'm not sure how to explain it. I just feel…weird."_

_ "Maybe it's this form we're in. You've always acted weird whenever we biomerged. I still remember our first time. You nearly threw up, and I had to take control…"_

_ "Don't remind me."_ A luminous blush appeared on Lilithmon's pale skin as the human girl inside her relived the memory. _"But I got used to it. I haven't felt that way in years. But this time…I don't know. Looking down there just seems to make my skin crawl for some reason."_

_ "Eh. I think you're just imagining things. You're scared of the dark too you know. You always jump at shadows, and you're _always_ dragging me to the bathroom. You're such a freakin' kid…"_

_ "Oh be quiet, Beanie,"_ grumbled Miki, rubbing her Mega form's arms._ "I just don't like stumbling around at night. No light, and waaay too many things for my feet to smack into. That kind of stuff hurts you know."_

_ "…Right. Whatever helps you sleep at night, Miki."_

_ "You are _so_ not funny, Beanie."_

_ "Eh. Whatever. I don't suppose that you mind separating now, do you? These balloons of ours are giving my back cramps and I don't like being in this form any longer than I have to."_

_ "Oh, you're such a baby. No taste at all. Besides, we have to be ready in case those Knighthood guys come back. You saw how fast they were to keep everyone from biomerging. We can't get caught like that again."_ Lilithmon's eyes frowned as Miki considered something._ "Hey! What do you mean by back cramps? I don't feel anything at all! And we're _Mega_ by the way!"_

From the darkness surrounding her data sphere, Miki could only hear Dracmon's exasperated groans.

_"You are impo…"_

Miki was abruptly cut off as the ground shook beneath her, upsetting her balance and causing her to fall to the ground.

"Ah! A digi-quake!" Lilithmon exclaimed. "Ryo! You've got to get out of the—!"

Lilithmon blinked. The air surrounding the hole was dark and filled with what appeared to be television static. The darkness spread outwards, taking on a massive, reptilian shaped form. Lilithmon's eyes drew upwards, following the shape as it began to solidify and become more clear. Massive, bony fingers flexed as a dull, crimson glow appeared in a pair of sockets. A solitary horn sprouted from a skull as the creature reared upwards to its full height.

"SkullGreymon," whispered Lilithmon. "Where the hell did _that_ come from?"

**"Fist of Athena!"**

A pink and yellow blur shot through the air, aiming towards the towering figure of SkullGreymon, only to pass straight through the creature. The blur drew to a halt and Crusadermon appeared, looking over her shoulder in confusion.

"What the…?" Crusadermon cocked her head to one side and grabbed one of her ribbons. Blurring again, she rushed the skeleton digimon, slashing repeatedly with the sash blade. Although the weapon cut neatly through the SkullGreymon, the Ultimate level digimon showed virtually no sign of having been effected by it. Lines of static ran up its body as Crusadermon passed straight through the creature and came to a landing next to Lilithmon.

"It's out of phase with our plane," said Crusadermon as she helped Lilithmon get to her feet.

"What's that mean?" asked Lilithmon, raising an eyebrow.

"It's not really here."

"What are you talking about?" Lilithmon scoffed. As though to lend credibility to her words, the SkullGreymon moved relentlessly forward and the ground shook once again. Crusadermon grabbed the demoness by her dress and held her still.

"Hey! What are you…?"

"Just wait."

"Crusadermon! That thing is almost on top of us! We've got to get out of…"

"Too late."

The sounds of Ayaka and Kenta's panicked shouts tore through the air, Ayaka calling for them to run while Kenta ordered MarineAngemon to shield them. It was all for nothing however, and SkullGreymon's massive foot drove down on the pair. Lilithmon let out a scream and therw her arms up to protect herself. Much to her surprise, the foot passed right through her and crashed down onto the earth, causing it to shake once more. Crusadermon held firm onto Lilithmon, preventing her from falling as she worked to recover from her shock, a shock that was shared by the two humans behind them.

"Wha…what the hell is _going on?"_ exclaimed Lilithmon as her heart threatened to tear itself from her chest.

"As I said," replied Crusadermon coolly, "this SkullGreymon is slightly out of phase with this level of the digital world. Some of its effects are transmitting to this side, but because we are not on the other side, we cannot be directly affected by it, nor can we directly affect it either. Or did you not notice my attack did not touch it?"

"I…uh…ah…"

"I rest my case." Letting go of Lilithmon, Crusadermon walked over to the hole.

"Ryo Akiyama!" she called down, her voice echoing off its walls. "Are you all right?" She waited a moment before calling again. "Ryo Akiyama!"

"He's not answering…"

"SkullGreymon may have caused a cave-in. Ryo could be injured as a result."

"I'm going in…"

"You," spoke Crusadermon smoothly, "are staying up here. You are still in shock and are not thinking clearly. The last thing Ryo needs is a panicking fool going after him."

Lilithmon recoiled, as though Crusadermon's words had physically struck her.

"A _fool!_ Where are you getting that fr…"

_"Miki,"_ spoke up Dracmon's voice from the darkness surrounding the girl's data sphere. _"She's right. You're a little frazzled right now from SkullGreymon's size 280 plus. And frankly…so am I. Let Crusadermon handle this. She's called the 'Indifferent Warrior' for a reason, you know. There's not much that gets under her skin. Or armor in this case."_

Lilithmon bit her lip, signifying the conflict that was going on inside Miki's heart.

"All right," she finally nodded. "But you'd better bring him back in one piece."

"Your threats are unnecessary," said Crusadermon, readying herself. "Nor are they at all worrying."

With that parting word, the Royal Knight leapt into the hole, disappearing rapidly into the abyss. Lilithmon watched her go, scowling angrily after her.

* * *

Crusadermon descended down the shaft Cyberdramon had drilled. Beneath her helmet, she was frowning.

_Strange…I'm not seeing any sign of a cave in, and there's something…odd about this place. It feels a bit misplaced. Like it's not supposed to be here._

Crusadermon's frown deepened as she continued to descend into the hole.

_There's something else too. I know this feeling. I don't like this. The SkullGreymon's appearance couldn't have been a coincidence. The timing is just too perfect._

"Cyberdramon!" she called out. "Are you all right? Are you conscious?"

Again, no reply reached her ears, causing her frown to deepen even further. Between the Tamer and his partner she at least had faith that Cyberdramon would still be conscious and working to get free.

_If anything I should be sensing them. Cyberdramon at least since he's a digimon. I can still detect the others up on the surface…_

"Ugh…" Crusadermon placed one hand on her stomach, feeling a sickening sense of nausea seize her.

_Something's not right around here. Something's not right at all…_

Crusadermon touched down on the bottom of the hole and she panned her gaze around. Even though the light was faint this far down, there really wasn't much to see at all. The hole was hardly large, having only enough room to contain a few people if they stood back to back.

_Or large enough to contain one Cyberdramon,_ thought Crusadermon. _But neither he nor Ryo are here. What's going on…?_

Crusadermon paused and listened.

_I hear the sound of wind…_

Following the sound she found a small crack in the ground. Narrowing her eyes, a suspicion came to mind and she knelt down.

Suddenly, another shockwave ripped through the earth. A crack splintered along the length of the hole's wall and a rock splintered off, falling towards her and smashing into her helm before she could even react. Crusadermon staggered. The crack tore into the ground, shattering it beneath her. The next thing Crusadermon knew she was floating in midair, and a blast of black wind blew over her body, scouring her armor. A shrieking laughter arose in that wind, as though it were joyous at the occurrence.

_ Oh…no!_ Crusadermon's eyes shot wide beneath her helm as her view of the world began to become disjointed. _Ayaka!_

Power surged through the Royal Knight as she pushed into the air, tearing her way back up the tunnel in a desperate bid to reach the surface.

* * *

* * *

Marcus fell backwards, striving to maintain his balance as, towering over him, the massive form of SkullGreymon advanced on the shadow creatures. The shadow creatures drew back, looking disoriented.

_Our surroundings just got weird,_ thought Urocyomon, blinking in surprise. Raw, golden daylight assaulted his eyes, breaking the darkness that had just scant milliseconds ago dominated his sight.

"Agumon!" shouted Marcus at SkullGreymon. The skeletal dragon ignored him, all of his attention fully focused on the shadow creatures. _"Agumon!"_

_ He's not listening. This is bad. This is just like when he digivolved into ShineGreymon Ruin Mode. I've got to stop him before things get worse!_

A black field of energy flared around his body as he charged his digi-soul for battle, and Marcus suddenly gagged as his stomach nearly emptied its contents right there and then.

"Guh…wha…?" Gritting his teeth, Marcus fought the nausea down

"You're telling me," groaned Urocyomon, clasping his claws to his head. "What the heck is going on with the lights?"

Marcus, for the briefest of moments, turned his attention away from his partner and raised an eyebrow at Urocyomon's words.

"What are you…?"

The ground lurched just then, but it had nothing to do with SkullGreymon. Black and White sand burned away to golden rock, only to have it in turn torn apart by darkness ripping through them like rising spires. Color broke through the darkness again within seconds, only to be shorn once more by the darkness. Back and forth it went in rapid succession until bright, blinding white exploded outwards, swallowing everything in its sheer intensity.

* * *

A/N: Final exams and essays are finally done and over with, so maybe now I can finally get back to something resembling a regular schedule as far as updates go, though with work starting up again for me, it's all up in the air. Still, it shouldn't be too bad.

About the update… I have to admit that some bits don't stick with me very well, if only because any time I take a week and plus off from writing, it becomes a pain for me to get back into it and sink back into the groove of things. So any comments on mistakes will be greatly appreciated.

Until next chapter then.

-Crazyeight

* * *

9


	18. Emotions: Part 3

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.

Revival

Chapter: 18/ Emotions: Part 3

The figure stood behind the boulder, his brown cloak flapping in the breeze. Absently, he pulled the cloak closer to him while continuing to focus on what he was seeing. A spray of dark liquid surged into the air as the light of the digital world flickered back and forth between its usual, golden shine to a dull, grayness that he recognized all too well. Darkness sprang up through the ground like fangs and the massive form of a SkullGreymon materialized into not only view, but into solidity. The giant, undead digimon was joined by a few newcomers as well, very few of which made him feel any better about what he was sure was going on.

_The Dark Ocean…it's spreading into the digital world…_

The rapid-fire changes in the terrain were really all the evidence that the cloaked figure needed, but the presence of the shadow creatures, natives to the depths of the Dark Ocean and servants of one of its many masters more than cemented the idea in his mind. Straightening, the cloaked figure raised one arm. Darkness flowed from the depths of his cloak and began to wrap around his body. His cloak shifted color from its brown to a more azure hue as he steeled himself.

"Summon," he spoke aloud, his body preparing to transform.

_"Now, now,"_ piped up a voice in the figure's mind, abruptly halting his transformation. _"I do believe that I told you to 'stay hidden'. If you let loose your power, you will be compromised this time for certain."_

"Ah!" the figure jerked reflexively and pulled his cloak tightly around his body as it returned to its brown color. "But…GranDracmon! The balance…"

_"…Is fine for the moment, and does not require our immediate attention. Have faith, youngling. You're far too used to acting upon your instincts. I thought that was something that you outgrew, but I can see that such is not the case…"_

"No." The figure forced himself to relax. "I'll…behave." The figure gritted his teeth at those words and pulled his fingers tightly into a fist. GranDracmon chuckled within his mind.

_"Indeed. You're too much of a good boy. Nonetheless, if it appears that the Tamers are going to be destroyed, then you may intervene, but only so long as you give them only an opportunity to survive and retreat through this newly created doorway. The higher powers won't brook too much interference from our side at this point. You would do well to remember that."_

"Yeah," the figure nodded, crouching down at the edge of the boulder, continuing to observe the situation. _But it's still so hard to watch this happen when I'm not allowed to do anything about it!

* * *

_

Ryo Akiyama rolled over to the side with a groan, his eyes quickly coming to focus on his partner, Cyberdramon, who was just now getting to his feet.

"Ryo," the dragon warrior growled. "Are you all right?"

"Could be better," the Legendary Tamer replied, shaking his head. "What just happened? The last thing I remember was us drilling in the tunnel and then I could have sworn that I saw the Dark Ocean just up and open up beneath us."

"It did."

Ryo frowned at his partner and glanced down at the ground. "That's funny…this doesn't look like grayscale to me…"

No sooner than were the words out of his mouth then did the rock he lay upon suddenly become dark. Gray colored sand spread across its surface like an infection, and Ryo reflexively leapt to his feet, scrambling away from the source.

"What the…?" he rasped, trying to figure out what was going on. At that moment, a shadow fell over him, blotting out the light from the digital sky. Looking up, Ryo felt his eyes widen slightly at the sight of a massive SkullGreymon towering over him, flexing its powerful claws.

"When it rains it pours," he murmured. "Cyberdramon. Guess we've gotta take care of some business."

Getting to his feet, Ryo produced a set of cards from his deck box marked by the familiar 'Goliath' identification. Quickly he slashed the first one through his blue digivice, and with a roar Cyberdramon's body grew to immense proportions. Sensing this sudden upsurge in power, the SkullGreymon turned on Cyberdramon, fire already igniting at the base of the fish missile attached to his spine.

**"Dark Shot!"**

Wasting no time, Cyberdramon dove forward, smashing into SkullGreymon with tremendous force as his missile rocketed off his spinal column. The missile flew through the air without guidance, having lost its target in the collision, and exploded in midair. Ryo ducked and rolled to the side as shrapnel rained down from the destroyed missile, only to bounce harmlessly off a heart shaped bubble that suddenly materialized around him.

"Huh?" Ryo blinked as a familiar pink fairy flew over to him and greeted him happily. "MarineAngemon!"

"Pih!" The pink colored fairy did a cartwheel in the air, giggling in utter happiness. "Pihppihpihpihpih!"

"Great to have you nearby, buddy," Ryo smiled. "I'd ask you what's going on, but I don't speak MarineAngemon."

"Pih." MarineAngemon shrugged his shoulders and flapped his wings, causing the heart bubble to levitate and pull them out of the way of the battle. Ryo turned his attention to the scene unfolding before him. Cyberdramon was starting to overpower SkullGreymon, pushing him to the ground. Ryo clenched his teeth. It seemed impossible that the viral digimon was doing so, considering that Cyberdramon not only was a Vaccine to SkullGreymon's Virus and thus had type advantage, but also had a power boost courtesy of the Goliath Modify card. That card on its own had often been enough to defeat most adversaries, including the dragon Deva and afforded Cyberdramon with enough strength to stand on par with a Mega.

_Just what is going on here?_ Ryo wondered before a dark blast sheered through the ground between the two warring Ultimates, forcing them apart. SkullGreymon roared angrily and flexed his bony tail while Cyberdramon growled. The two began circling each other, the earth shaking beneath their feet as they both looked for an opening from which to gain an advantage from.

_This is far from done,_ thought Ryo, pulling out another card and slashing it through his digivice. **"Digi-Modify! Strength Activate!"

* * *

**

Light. It had been everywhere, consuming everything. In its sheer intensity, nothing was safe. Its grasp however was temporary, and began to die down almost as soon as it appeared, shrinking until it returned to a stark, landscape of canyons. However, the chaos that had preceded the light did not vanish with it, and darkness and color continued to war with each other for supremacy. The sky flickered back and forth between a mist-like gray and its original deep blue as water burst into the air through the hole in the ground. Within the water, dark shapes could be seen flitting about, and an obscene cackling could be heard upon the wind as they breached and disappeared into the sky.

"What the heck is going on here?" demanded Marcus as another quake nearly threw him off his feet.

"Dimensional displacement, I think!" shouted Urocyomon, throwing himself flat on the ground as the ground continued to shake. "The barriers between the surface level and the Dark Area are shredding! I…oh Sovereign! I can feel them snapping in my mind! I—!" Urocyomon clutched the sides of his head as data seeped from his mouth. Marcus' eyes widened in surprise as he looked at the silver-furred fox. He was shivering so badly that his fangs were cutting into his mouth!

_Agumon's gone out of control, and now Urocyomon's losing it!_ Marcus made a fist and black fire flared around it, nearly causing him to empty his stomach once again. He forced it down and quickly gained control over himself. _We've got to get a grip on ourselves. We've got to…_

The ground lurched once more, and now Marcus was thrown forward, hitting the ground with tremendous force. He bit down hard, preventing himself from crying out at the jarring pain that ripped through his knees and rolled with the blow. Looking up, he saw SkullGreymon lying on the ground, a crack running the length of his bony skull while an armored dragon stood over him. Blue energy lit around his claws a s it drew its mouth back into a vicious snarl.

**"Desolation Claw!"**

_"Agumon!"_

Black fire leapt around Marcus' body just then, and he leapt forward. All thoughts and emotion were gone now save for the need to protect his partner no matter what form he had taken. All doubt vanished, and within a second he crossed the distance separating him from his partner and stood on his torso. In his mind's eye he was back to a time from a year ago, facing down the Royal Knight Craniummon as he stood ready to skewer ShineGreymon. The digimon was different this time, but the fact remained. He had an enemy that was trying to destroy his partner, and he was going to do everything in his power to prevent him from doing so. The fire flared around him, intensifying until he was a single pillar of all-consuming blackness. The dragon warrior cupped his claws together and fired a single, concentrated burst of azure energy. It blitzed towards SkullGreymon. Marcus drew back his fist and thrust it forward. Dark fire blazed outwards, connecting with the oncoming attack. The two blasts clashed for a moment, pushing against each other until, finally, the darkness won out and poured over the dragon's attack, overwhelming it and consuming it before stabbing outwards where it exploded against the dragon. The dragon fell backwards with a roar, armor falling from his body and vaporizing upon hitting the ground.

Marcus stood atop SkullGreymon's ribcage, breathing heavily for a moment. His eyes burned with a crimson light from within the shadowy fire that surrounded him. As though a decision had been reached, the black fire expanded outwards, encompassing SkullGreymon until gray colored, metallic wings burst outwards. Fire ignited at their tips, blowing away the pillar of darkness, revealing an armored, dragon-like figure standing with an enclosed fist directed towards the fallen dragon. Slowly it opened its fist, revealing Marcus, standing in its palm, eyes ablaze with an eerie red light.

Marcus leered at his fallen adversary.

"Get up. This fight's just getting started."

* * *

Yamaki entered the main control room of Hypnos. Sirens flashed around him, blaring their warning. For a moment, he was overcome with a sense of nostalgia. Incidents such as this had waned during the past few years, leaving him with less to do except conduct his exploration of the digital world and push through his Tamer program. Now here he was again, danger at a hairsbreadth from going out of control, the Tamers no doubt working the scene while he was left first asking what the situation was and then considering how to best deal with it.

It felt as though he were slipping on an old shoe. Under other circumstances, he would have wondered about it, but not now. Now, he still had a job to do, and he would continue to perform it without distractions.

"Report," Yamaki said, looking up at Tally as she furiously typed away on her control panel.

"We're receiving a chaotic flux of information emanating from the digital world," Tally replied. "I'm working to get a better sense of it, but I think we're looking at a partial collapse of the surface level."

"Kuroda? Can you confirm this?"

"The scanners are making too much of a mess of things," grunted Kuroda. "I'm deploying Tracers to provide us with a visual survey, but I'm not confident that we'll get anything better that way. There's a major-league distortion going on in the digital world, and it's all happening at the last known location of Ryo's team."

"Why am I not surprised that they would be at the center of this mess?" asked Yamaki sarcastically, flipping his lighter open. "Can we retrieve them?"

"Their signals are mostly at the periphery of the distortion. A couple are mixed in however, so we're having a difficult time pinpointing them. It's like trying to locate the source of a specific color while it's being massively messed around with by a whirlpool effect in an image manipulation program. I can trace the signals back to their source, thank God for small favors, but until I do they look like they're all over the place. And for the record, the distortion keeps getting worse. A few minutes ago, we had what Tally called a 'white out' effect that blanketed our sensors. Damn near shut us down." Kuroda grimaced as his fingers flew across his control panel. "If they can get to the edge of the distortion then it won't be as big of a problem and we can gate them out of there. Until then…"

"Until then, we're working on just faith that they'll come out of it in one piece." Yamaki frowned and flicked his lighter closed. "How strange the sheer number of times we're reduced to relying on pure chance."

"I'll say," nodded Kuroda. "I absolutely hate it."

"Kuroda," called down Tally. "I think I've got a way to clear things up a bit and bring the Tamers home. Can you double-check my numbers?"

"Send it."

Kuroda furrowed his brow thoughtfully as Tally forwarded the information to him and he scanned it over.

"Hmmm…it's a little rough but…I think this could work."

Yamaki raised an eyebrow.

"What's the risk factor?"

"Very long in the decimal area and not to mention debatable, and that's no thanks to the effects that the distortion is causing. But to borrow the Tamers game language, if we play our cards right, we can pull it off. Fire up the Gate, Tally. Operation Bring-The-Tamers-Home is underway."

* * *

"This is not good," murmured Ryo as MarineAngemon deposited him along with the rest of his companions.

"Ryo!" exclaimed Kenta, rushing up to the older teen. His gaze was set firmly, and he looked over at MarineAngmeon. "We've got to rescue Cyberdramon!"

"No," countermanded Ryo.

"Huh? Did you go crazy or something? That guy just digivolved. Cyberdramon's not going to stand a chance out there even if he's boosted by your Goliath Card."

Ryo grimaced. He knew Kenta was right, but the risk was just too great. The distortions, or whatever was going on out there, were fluctuating at an ever increasingly alarming rate. Darkness continued to creep out and spread across the land, while Cyberdramon barely managed to fend off the new digimon's attacks. Raising his digivice, Ryo called up the creature's stats, hoping to get a better idea of how to approach it in battle.

**ShineGreymon**

**Stage: Mega**

**Type: Virus**

**Attacks: Glorious Burst, Shining Blast, GeoGrey Sword**

_ I don't think we want to be on the receiving end of any of those,_ thought Ryo. _And I don't think Justimon's going to be much good out there either. Mega or not, none of his attacks pack enough of a punch to even remotely dent this guy. He's too much of a fighter type than a powerhouse._

"Ryo!" Kenta grabbed Ryo by the shoulder, looking at him with frantic eyes. "We've got to do _something!_ If we hold back any longer we're going to lose Cyberdramon! Don't you get that?"

"Do you _think_ I get it?" asked Ryo, turning his focus on the battle. Cyberdramon's form was flickering now. The Goliath Card's effect was starting to lose power. In spite of the dragon warrior's attempts at maintaining it, he would soon shrink and be at the mercy of the Mega's power.

Kenta released his hold on Ryo's shoulder.

"Then…then what do you have in mind? Tell us something!"

"Ring Yamaki and let him know that we need an evac." Ryo deactivated the analyzer function of his digivice and brought his digivice close to his chest.

"T-That's it? We're quitting?" Kenta looked over at Ayaka and Lilithmon, who were both looking at Ryo as though he had lost his mind.

"Ryo," said Crusadermon, stepping forward. "Urocyomon is out there. I can sense his presence. He's somewhere stuck in all of that. We can't leave until we have him."

MarineAngemon looked over at Kenta.

"Pihpihpuh."

"Uh…MarineAngemon? Ryo can't understand you, so you're telling him didn't really help much…"

"Crusadermon," said Ryo, ignoring the pair for the moment. "Can you pinpoint where Urocyomon is?"

"With accuracy," nodded Crusadermon. "But I daresay that I'll be more useful helping Cyberdramon."

"Me too!" said Lilithmon. "Now that we're all a safe distance, the two of us can go in there and get our hands dirty."

"No." Ryo shook his head. "Crusadermon. Just get Urocyomon and get back here. Kenta, get Yamaki to bring us home as soon as she gets back with him."

"But what about Cyberdramon!" demanded Kenta, sweeping his hand in the direction of the dragon. The flickering of his form was increasing in rapidity, beating in tune with the darkness that continued to spill out onto the land. Whatever was going on, it was flooding towards them at an alarming rate. Ryo noted that, if things didn't resolve themselves quickly, they would be forced to retreat again; an option that Cyberdramon did not have given his current situation.

"Don't worry about him," said Ryo, his digivice glowing slightly. Kenta blinked.

"Huh?"

"I'm the Legendary Tamer," Ryo continued, tightening his grip around his D-Arc. "Cyberdramon is going to show that ShineGreymon _exactly_ what that means."

* * *

Crusadermon materialized in the air directly above the figure of Urocyomon, lying prostrate on the ground. He appeared to be unconscious and unable to move. It was not a good sign by her account, but the fact that he had not in the process of breaking apart at least told her that he was not in any serious danger…yet.

Her figure blurred and she appeared directly at his side. Picking the limp fox up into her arms with a gentleness that would have once surprised her, Crusadermon stood up, preparing to leave when her senses picked out something surrounding her.

"I know you're there!" she shouted, pulling the kitsune close to her protectively. "Show yourselves!"

Shadows lifted themselves up from out of the dark stained ground and shaped themselves into forms that only barely resembled something humanoid. They were bent and ghostly in appearance, with long, spindly limbs and thin, almost starved looking bodies. They appeared to only barely exist in the loosest sense of the word, as Crusadermon could see through them. The only thing that appeared t o have any kind of solidity about them were the sunken eyes on their faces, looking out at her with a cold, calculating distance.

_Or rather…they're looking only at Urocyomon,_ Crusadermon thought, and she instinctively tightened her hold around him.

"Royal Knight," the shadows chorused as one. Their voices blended together in an almost machine-like manner and Crusadermon felt a small shudder run the length down her spine.

"Who are you?"

"We are the servants of the Undersea Master," they crowed. "He is coming to this world now. The way has been made open now. Your kind will fall before him."

"Is that so?" asked Crusadermon sarcastically, taking a small step backwards. "I've heard that before. The only ones who seem to back it up are those children from the human worlds. You have the taint of the Dark Area about you, and I can't remember the last time any of the fallen lived up their words."

"They were but harbingers," said one of the shadow creatures, raising its hand in her direction. "This time, we will not be denied."

"The same, pitiful excuse you're always dribbling out whenever you lost a battle," sneered Crusadermon.

The shadow creatures' eyes gleamed together.

_"You_ have not been made to face the darkness in all its glory. The seal has been broken, and now with the key, the way to all worlds will be laid bare for us."

"So that's what you're after." Crusadermon glanced down at Urocyomon briefly before returning her attention to the dark creatures. "Well, I haven't fought you, but I do know what it takes to put your kind down."

A flash of yellow and Crusadermon's sash blade lashed out, stabbing into the closest shadow creature through the neck. The creature gagged and staggered, its head toppling off and hitting the ground. Silence reigned for a moment, but that moment passed quickly as an eerie laugh arose from the crowd, catching Crusadermon by surprise.

"You knew nothing." The shoulders of the creature Crusadermon had just decapitated rose up and down in silent laughter as it stooped down and picked its head up. "Now, you have but a gleam of knowledge. Did it ever occur to you _why_ the powers merely _locked_ us away rather than destroy us?"

The creature squawked as it began to set its head back on its shoulders, and suddenly fell apart completely. Crusadermon snorted as she retracted her sash blade.

"Pride from a low level. It's not very becoming, nor is it impressive. However I have no time to deal with you. We shall meet again, and _then_ you can show me this _power_ you keep boasting about."

With that, Crusadermon leapt into the air with her charge and vanished. The shadow creatures watched silently, flexing their claws.

"Yes," whispered the fallen shadow creature as it pulled its body back together, melting the segmented parts together like liquid metal. "Yes, we will. Until then, Indifferent Warrior. Ta."

* * *

"I've got him," said Crusadermon, materializing next to Ayaka.

"At least we've got something going right," said Kenta, looking worriedly over at Ryo. The teen had his eyes closed and held his digivice close to his chest. A light nimbus of energy surrounded his body.

"You know…there was once a time where you would have had more confidence in him," said Ayaka, smiling in a playful manner at Kenta, though the tone in her voice told everyone that she was thinking along the same lines as he was.

Kenta didn't answer the coppery haired girl, and continued to watch Ryo with worry.

Lilithmon rubbed her arms together, pressing her lips into one thin line. Her eyes gazed over his face, his expression one of supreme introspection, as though wrestling with something that only he could see and hear. Wrestling with a battle that no one save himself could fight, no matter how much they wished—no matter how much she wished they could help him with.

_I know you can do it, Ryo. You've never let us down before, and I know you won't now. You've got something planned. I know you do.

* * *

_

_ Ryo looked up at the tall figure before him, and it gazed back at him with an expression that spoke of satisfaction and curiosity. Glowing gold and blue fire flexed around its body and talons dipped slightly towards the teen, as though seeking to engulf him in their embrace._

"_So…here you are."_

_ "Greetings Ryo. It has been a while. Three years now, has it? You've grown, and in more ways than one."_

_ "I can't say that it's been long enough…Milleniummon."_

_ A wide smile grew across Milleniummon's face just then._

_ "Nice to see you, as always. Our dance never ends, Ryo. What do you want?"_

_ "You can't guess? Even now, you're still a part of Cyberdramon."_

_ "And he's losing." Milleniummon nodded. "Well, he doesn't tell me as much as he used to. He has his stubborn pride while I…sleep more. The darkness brought me out though. You were gambling on that, weren't you?"_

_ "Milleniummon…"_

_ Thunder rolled through the sky of Ryo's mind as Milleniummon chuckled._

_ "Very well, Ryo. But you know that all power exacts a price. What will yours be?"_

_ Ryo frowned, but did not answer._

_ "Very well then. I think it's about time that I stretched myself out a little. I've slept too long…"_

_ The fires that surrounded Milleniummon's body flared briefly as a small gleam emerged in his eyes.

* * *

_

Cyberdramon fell to the ground as the power of Ryo's Goliath Card finally gave out completely, forcing him to shrink back down to his standard size. ShineGreymon towered before him, confident in the assuredness of his victory now. Cyberdramon growled, feeling an odd sense of confliction. In a way, he had fought the battle he always desired, but now to be defeated…it seemed almost…unfair.

ShineGreymon kneeled down and a ring of fire arose around him as he thrust his arm into the ground. The earth shook as he withdrew his arm, revealing a double-bladed weapon with a ring hand guard surrounding the handle. ShineGreymon stood up, a black aura surrounding the weapon. Cyberdramon drew his claws together, and blue energy sparked between his palms. The spark flared and died out quickly though, revealing the extent of power that he had remaining.

_My final battle…my ultimate opponent… It all ends here…_

Cyberdramon growled. It seemed a good way to end his battle-driven life, but his thoughts of Ryo's safety dug at the back of his mind. Ryo…they had always fought by each other's side for as long as they've been together. Their power was…

_"…Eternal, Cyberdramon,"_ spoke up a voice in the back of his mind. Cyberdramon snarled and surged to his feet. The voice chuckled. _"Still suspicious of my motives I see. You have nothing to fear, this time. Or rather, you won't have time to worry about it. Because _I…"

Darkness surged in Cyberdramon's body, and expanded outwards. The outline of a figure, cloaked in shadow bloated up into the sky, lightning crackling within its depths. Two orbs of golden energy appeared above its shoulders as the shadow took aim at ShineGreymon.

**"Ultimate Fusion!"**

The twin orbs fired outwards, and ShineGreymon raised its sword to deflect the incoming blasts. The orbs smashed into it, and ShineGreymon snarled, pressing against the attack. Shadows flowed from his shoulder where a single, solitary human stood and the orbs seemed to back off a bit, only to flare intensely and detonate with explosive force. Great clouds billowed into the air, covering the two combatants while Ryo fell back a bit.

"Ah!" Lilithmon cried out, catching the teen in her arms. "Ryo! Are you okay?"

"..Fine…" he murmured, his voice coming out slurred and exhausted. "…I'm fine. But Cyberdramon…"

"He's devolved," Crusadermon stated, setting Urocyomon down. "I'll go get him."

With that, Crusadermon leapt back into the air and towards the direction of the smoke. Lilithmon watched her go before turning her worried attention towards the Legendary Tamer she held in her arms. Ryo's eyes were drooping, and he fought against them every step of the way, unwilling to surrender to whatever had happened to him until he saw that his partner was all right.

_Ryo…_ Miki thought, gazing at the Tamer in amazement. _What did you just do?_

Without thinking, Lilithmon's human hand came up and cupped Ryo's cheek gently. Within her data sphere, Miki gasped as she felt a spark flash through her arm from the connection.

_Ah! R-Ryo! _Miki felt heat rush through her face and she shook her head, hoping against all hope, and knowing that it was useless to do so, that the heat wasn't being represented on Lilithmon's face.

_My heart…_

Hoping to distract herself from the rush of emotions that surged through her, Miki looked out towards the horizon and frowned. There was a wall of golden energy encompassing the landscape now and it surrounded them on all sides.

_Like a great ring… That's weird. It sort of makes me think of the Gateway we used to get here…_

"I'm back," said Crusadermon, materializing back into view with a small, pear shaped, purple colored digimon nestled in her arms. "He's devolved into Hopmon, but I think he'll be okay. Lilithmon, you'll have to carry Ryo. We've got to get out of here before…"

A powerful roar tore through the air as a silver-shining sword clove through the smoke, dispersing it and revealing the form of ShineGreymon, completely untouched and unaffected despite the attack he had taken. Crimson eyes turned towards them and beneath her helm Crusadermon met them, her own eyes narrowing in turn.

"Kenta," said Crusadermon as she raised her battle sashes and hefted her Pile Bunker shield. "Take Hopmon. I'll cover your retreat."

"But Crusadermon…"

_"Do it!"_

It was at that moment that a ring of light materialized around the group, causing them to disappear as it winked out of existence.

* * *

A/N: The rescue of Urocyomon part of the story is over (or is it? :P), though the Marcus subplot isn't, nor are half of everything else that have shown up in here (though they will be covered later on while the Tamers regroup and figure out their next move). More secrets will continue to be unveiled as the story gets rolling. 'Till next chapter then.

-Crazyeight

* * *

9


	19. Home Again

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.

Revival

Chapter: 19/ Home Again

"…In short," explained Kuroda to Yamaki, leaning back in his chair with a calm expression on his face, "by running a wide range Gateway, we funneled the effects of the distortion through our systems, keeping it in a temporary state of stasis until we were able to filter out the Tamers' signals. After that it was but a simple matter of activating a second Gateway and bringing them home."

Kuroda huffed and his chair creaked a bit as he shifted a bit. "Problem solved."

"Not quite," said Yamaki, flicking his lighter closed. "You still need to shut down the first Gate that you created."

"Yeah. I'm…uh…working on that." Kuroda's expression became troubled just then and he leaned towards his computer screen.

"Is there a problem?" asked Yamaki. Kuroda shook his head, though he still looked troubled.

"No. No trouble. Just the usual speed issues when you have a lot of data flowing through the system. It's a good thing that we brought the Tamers back when we did. If we were so much as a second longer we would still be waiting to bring them back. As it stands, we've got to wait a bit and work things through. I'll need some resources freed up though to speed things along." Kuroda ran a hand through his hair and sighed. "Maybe we should have waited to come up with a better plan. With this, we've tied up the Gateway so we can't use it. It's like we're back in the Stone Age again."

"Pardon?" asked Yamaki, raising an eyebrow. Tally giggled.

"That's what he calls our operations before the Gateway was created and we didn't work fully with the Tamers."

"I see." Yamaki nodded and returned his attention back to Kuroda. "I want this to be your top assignment for the time being. I want the Gateway up and running as soon as possible." Yamaki glanced over at Tally. "Don't let the guard slip though. We still have to keep an eye out for Wild Ones."

"Yes sir."

Nodding, Yamaki turned and exited the main control room. As soon as the doors closed behind the man, Kuroda breathed a heavy sigh and leaned his forehead into one hand. Giving the man a sympathetic smile, Tally walked over and placed her hands on his shoulders, rubbing them gently.

"Hey. Take it easy. You brought the kids home and as an added bonus it looks like you stopped the distortion that was trying to eat them up."

"You make it sound like I'm a parent coming home from a grueling day of work."

Tally chuckled as she massaged the muscles in his shoulders.

"Well, you're having a grueling day at work anyway…"

"Ha. Ha. Hear me laugh."

"Your sense of humor's returned. I don't think you'll have too much trouble today."

"Why does it feel otherwise?"

"Hmmm…well, if you're still having trouble by the end of the day, then maybe a good night's rest will help clear your head." Tally pressed her fingers extra hard into his shoulders, and the man repressed a groan as he felt something pop. Leaning downwards with a small smile on her face, Tally spoke into his ear. "I can help you with that."

Kuroda shivered a little and, gently, pushed her hands off his shoulders.

"Tally…I seem to recall waking up even _more_ tired from your _relaxation_ sessions."

Tally laughed and pinched his cheek.

"That's what I love about you. You're so cheeky."

"I'm sure you're describing yourself," Kuroda grumbled. "Now let's not get ahead of ourselves here. I need to clear out some things so that we can shut down the Gateway. We may end up losing some stored data, but the archives will make up for that."

Tally nodded. "I'll contact Amaya Abe and have her dive into that. The archives are her specialty after all."

Kuroda nodded as he sunk himself into his work.

_Let's see what works then…

* * *

_

Yamaki flicked his lighter open and closed as he walked through the halls, his mind in deep thought.

_We've got the group back from the digital world, and with them Urocyomon. However, the other human that he reported was in the digital world didn't come back with the others, and with Urocyomon still unconscious, we have no idea what happened to him. The Tamers might have something though, but given the chaos that they seemed to have been in during their retrieval, it doesn't seem likely._

Yamaki flicked his lighter closed. There was, of course, only one way to know for sure, and that was to speak to the Tamers.

At that thought, Yamaki's lighter flicked open, and his fingers paused before flicking it closed once more.

Making his way to the elevators, he pressed the Up button, and was greeted in record time as the doors in front of him opened. The blonde haired head of Hypnos paused but a moment as he found himself staring into the face of Riley Ootori before entering.

"Riley."

"I was just on my way to get you sir."

"Any news from the Tamers?"

"That's what you had me talking to them for." Yamaki resisted the urge to flick his lighter open. Riley sounded unhappy for some reason.

"Report."

"For the most part, the Tamers didn't see any humans there, but they did mention that the digimon they fought digivolved mid-battle."

"There aren't many forces out there that can cause spontaneous evolution," said Yamaki. "At least, none that we know of outside of Calumon, digignomes, and humans themselves when partnered with a digimon."

"Calumon had his 'Catalyst' program returned to the digital world if I remember the reports properly," noted Riley stiffly. "It's not too hard to imagine that a digimon could spontaneously digivolve without the aid of a human."

"By the reports we've received from Shibumi, the Tamers, and their partners, it's not something that occurs during a battle, but rather after one as digimon digivolve after they've absorbed enough data—in this case, after they've absorbed enough defeated digimon. Of course, data lost during battle can delay digivolution as well. Did they mention anything about a digignome being present?"

"No sir. However, Ryo did say something that is…disturbing."

Yamaki raised an eyebrow at that.

"Explain."

"There was a distortion occurring in the digital world right before they were rescued." Riley's tone was laced with annoyance as she spoke. "According to Ryo, the reason for this was due to a level in the digital world being unlocked, and it was spilling into the surface level." Riley's eyes flashed as she looked at Yamaki. "He called it the 'Dark Ocean'."

"Did he say anything else?" asked Yamaki, for the moment, ignoring the tone in Riley's voice.

"Just that it's not a good place. He thinks that something terrible has been unleashed, and that we should be trying to close the hole as quickly as possible." Riley paused. "Apparently it's been shown in the TV show as well. Kenta has the episodes on DVD. I've sent him to bring them in so that we can look them over and see what we're in for."

"The show has been accurate so far in its depictions of digimon," noted Yamaki. "However the digital world turned out to be a very different place. However, it's still a place to start. The digital world is composed of many different worlds arranged along six planes of existence. In all that, there should be something that resembles this 'Dark Ocean'."

Riley pressed her lips together as the elevator continued to rise through the building.

"Sir."

"Something on your mind, Riley?"

"You've been keeping me out of the control room, sir." Riley narrowed her eyes. "Normally, I'd be working with Tally and Kuroda on the distortion or whatever issue is going on right now, but instead you had me interrogating the kids and getting reports from them. I didn't even know about the distortion until one of them told me. You had everything all solved when you brought the Tamers back—right before I got to the control room, and you wouldn't tell me what had happened." Riley turned to face Yamaki more fully. "I don't like being cut out of the loop like this, sir. You've never done it before, so why are you holding back on me now? What's going on with you? You've been assigning me responsibilities that are outside of my jurisdiction! What's happening?" Riley's face softened as she pressed her lips together. "Sir," she finished, in a lower voice.

Yamaki flicked his lighter open.

"Riley. You're a responsible person, and I trust you with all the work I assign to you. Let me remind you that despite our relationship, you are an employee inside of these walls."

Riley gritted her teeth. "That's not an answer sir. You're side stepping it."

Yamaki pushed his sunglasses up onto his face. "For now. Things are changing in the upper echelons. I want to make sure that you're ready for them. Not if we want this program to run as smoothly as it has so far."

Riley frowned, taken aback by that response. "Sir…what are you saying?"

The main elevator doors opened with a ding, and Yamaki stepped out into the hallway.

"Let's not talk about this now, Riley. There are other matters we have to focus on."

The sound of Yamaki's lighter flicking closed punctuated the end to the discussion as he began walking down the hallway.

* * *

Kenta pushed open the door to his home and stepped inside, looking around carefully.

"I guess Mom must be out right now," he mused, noting the unusual silence of the house. He had to admit that he felt more than a little unnerved by it. The quiet made him feel as though he were breaking into his own home.

"If that's the case, it makes things quicker for us," said Ayaka, poking her head in from behind. "We won't get bogged down explaining anything."

"I'll say," nodded Kenta, looking over his shoulder. "By the way, thanks again Crusadermon, for taking care of the transportation."

Behind Ayaka, the pink armored Royal Knight shrugged her shoulders. "It would not have gone well for the two of you, students, to have been seen by the authorities. You would have been 'bogged down', as you put it, explaining your situation."

"Like Hypnos would have let us leave on our own without escort to prevent that," mooted Ayaka, taking off her shoes. "But whatever. Where's that DVD collection of season two you were bragging about?"

"I wasn't bragging, Ayaka…"

"I'm just kidding, Kenta. Boy, you really need to lighten up. We've been going out for how long and you still can't figure that out? Honestly. What are you going to do when you marry a girl someday? Lifelong relationships like that are supposed to put up with some measure of nonsense."

All the while, Kenta noted that Ayaka was looking at him out of the corner of her eye, gauging his reaction to her words. Fumbling getting his shoes off, Kenta mumbled a little to himself and headed for t he stairs.

"Um…my digimon collection is…upstairs in my room…"

Ayaka seemed to brighten up at that.

"Really? I would have thought that you'd have it down here with the family stuff, but then again…" Ayaka paused and let her words trail off as she sprung after the boy. "You know, I've never been in your room before. That's not exactly fair you know, considering the number of times I've had you in mine."

"A-Ayaka!"

"Ah, jeez… You're so cute when you blush like that. Now I know what Jeri first liked about Takato. You guys are too modest about yourselves. Well…Takato's modest anyway. You're just…you."

Kenta turned his burning face away from the girl as they began to mount the stairs.

"I…I don't suppose that you could just wait outside, could you? I'll only be a second…"

Ayaka frowned for a moment before grinning.

"Why? Do you have something in there that I'm not supposed to see or something? Is your room messy? Kenta, if I was willing to kiss you when we were twelve and hold a relationship with you for _this_ long, I'm pretty sure that I can handle your eccentricities when you're not trying to be the perfect boyfriend. Besides, Kazu's already blabbed about your 'life size picture of Kari' anyway."

"Oh God…" Kenta palmed his face as it began burning with embarrassment. Not for the first time did he regret Kazu catching him receiving that poster in the mail. Ever since, his friend had gone out of his way to never let him live it down.

_And now Ayaka knows. I don't know how I can keep showing my face around her._

Crusadermon and MarineAngemon, observing the whole scene, merely exchanged glances and shrugged their shoulders collectively.

"We'll be waiting down here for you to return."

"Got it," crowed Ayaka cheerfully, quickly following Kenta.

The two Tamers crossed the distance to Kenta's bedroom and, swallowing, the bespectacled boy opened his door with his heart banging in his chest.

_Moment of truth…_

Kenta clenched his eyes shut, dread settling heavily over him like a suffocating blanket while Ayaka looked over his shoulder with a raised eyebrow. After a moment, she grinned and stepped forward into the room and laughed.

"You're such a weirdo."

Kenta tensed up at that. Seeing it, Ayaka continued to speak, trying to allay his fears.

"I don't mean it in a bad way Kenta." Ayaka glanced at the walls for a moment, taking in the vast amount of digimon paraphernalia that decorated their surfaces, much of which involved characters, posters, famous clips, fan art, and clippings from magazines. By and large though, the pictures of characters dominated the collection, particularly the fan art. Other than that however, it was a fairly normal room complete with a computer sitting in a corner on a small desk, a television sitting in another corner next to a bed, a bookshelf, and a game system. It was, from her opinion, fairly normal.

"Well," she revised, "I'd say you're a little obsessed, but since when was it a crime to be a fan? Do you know how many pictures of famous actors and musicians I have squirreled away? Or Miki for that matter? Even _Jeri _has her fair share of stuff like that, digimon included, and she's usually not the sort of person to invest in that. Besides," Ayaka walked over to the small television set that Kenta had sitting by his bed and began picking through the DVD cases strewn around on the floor, "it looks like it could help us, given what we're going through anyway."

_How many times could a fan obsession _possibly_ end up helping to save the world?_ wondered Kenta, joining the girl in his room.

_His _room.

Kenta gulped audibly. When was the last time he had someone of the opposite gender in his room outside of his own mother?

_ I think the last time had been when my cousin came down from Hokkaido. I haven't seen her since she entered university, and that was when I turned eleven._

Kenta swallowed again. He was starting to feel more than a little claustrophobic. Suddenly it felt as though his room wasn't large enough. Taking a deep breath, Kenta tried to calm himself and placed one hand on his stomach.

"Pihpih?"

"No MarineAngemon, I'm fine. Just trying not to throw up he…" Kenta's mind froze for a second before craning his head over his shoulder to find his partner hovering behind him with a curious expression on his face. "Um…I thought you were going to wait outside with Crusadermon."

"Pih."

"Um…how nice of you to check up on us..."

Ayaka rose, a single box set of DVDs in one hand as she eyed Kenta with a raised eyebrow, having caught his unfinished sentence.

"Kenta," she smirked. "You are _such_ a weirdo. Anyway, I've got what we came here for, so we should head back to Hypnos."

"Okay." Kenta frowned. "I still don't think that it's going to help us much."

"Maybe. Maybe not. Don't you think we could use anything to help us though?"

"In that case," Kenta adjusted his glasses, "why don't we just bring in the creator of all the digimon stuff? They probably have more information than what just a box set of DVDs can tell us."

"Hmmm…you know, I think we ought to run that by Yamaki the next time we see them."

With that, the two departed the room and began to head downstairs.

"Hey," Ayaka asked as they reached the bottom floor. "How're you feeling by the way? I didn't get much of a chance to look you over after MarineAngemon healed you up—you know, since we were trying to not get beat up out there."

"I'm okay," replied Kenta, shrugging his shoulders. "My stomach feels a little stiff, but other than that I'm not having any trouble."

"How're you going to explain away the shirt though? Hypnos was at least nice enough to let you borrow a clean one since yours was…all…" Ayaka pressed her lips together into one thin line as she tried to finish her sentence. "…_dirty._ You told me once that your mom keeps a pathological record of all your clothes."

"I'll make something up. Since becoming a Tamer it wouldn't be the first time."

"Kenta…"

Almost as one, the two Tamers stopped at the landing, and Kenta turned to look at the coppery haired girl. She looked back at him with a worried expression on her face.

"Um…are you all right?" he asked. Ayaka scowled and turned away, wiping one arm across her face as she did so.

"Kenta…I don't know if you're naïve or what sometimes. I mean, you got stabbed in the digital world that looks like Crusadermon, and you haven't acted bothered by it or anything."

Kenta placed one hand on his stomach at that. "I'm not bothered by it. Well…maybe a little bit, but not because it was from a digimon that looked like Crusadermon." Kenta forced a grin on his face. "She's been helping us for too long for me to be bothered by something like that. Right MarineAngemon?"

"Puh!" the pink fairy replied, nodding fiercely.

Ayaka _hmmphed_, but turned around with a slightly relieved expression on her face.

"I'm not bothered by it either, but I just feel weird about the whole thing anyway. I mean, you were _right there,_ bleeding in front of me, and I couldn't help but think about how close I came to losing you." Ayaka raised her thumb and forefinger and held them apart for emphasis. "I remember some of the stories my grandfather told me about when he was in the war. He used to scare me about how it didn't take much to kill a person, and you got a pretty bad injury while we were in the digital world."

Kenta shifted uncomfortably and rubbed the back of his head.

"Well…it's a good thing that we had MarineAngemon with us, right?" Kenta exchanged looks with his pink, fairy partner, and the diminutive digimon smiled brightly at him.

"Pihpihpuh."

"Yeah. It's like Takato says. As long as we're all together, we'll be fine. It's no big deal."

Smiling warmly, Ayaka walked over and took Kenta's arm in her own.

"I hope you're right you big dork. You need to work on your friendship speeches though. They're too corny. Even Takato does better than that. Heck, even _Kazu_ does better than that."

"Oh great," grumbled Kenta. "Always stuck in Kazu's shadow…"

Giggling, Ayaka grabbed hold of Kenta by his shirt and pulled him in for a kiss, holding it for a second before pulling away.

"Yeah. But I don't love them, remember? I. Love. You."

Kenta's glasses tilted comically as he looked at Ayaka.

"Yeah…about that. Remind me again what it is you see in me?"

"You're such a nerd," Ayaka laughed, pushing down on his head and bringing him in for another kiss. Pulling away, she looked hard into his eyes. "I love you, Kenta."

Kenta gave the girl a quirky, troubled smile as he again rubbed the back of his head, blushing as profusely as the girl looped around his arm.

"Um…t-thanks."

* * *

Prometheus stood atop the roof of a building, looking at the Shinjuku government building with a contemplative look on his face. As he stood there, a shadow appeared behind him as air warped and the form of Maelstrom appeared from out of nowhere.

"Well…" Prometheus began carefully. "That was…something else."

Maelstrom kneeled down and growled.

"I can hear my former master's call. He has set his eye on this world."

"Indeed," Maelstrom nodded. "He may even send an agent to investigate things. I wonder if I should go see him personally." Prometheus raised his thumb to his mouth and chewed on the finger nail for a moment before shaking his head. "Nah. That wouldn't do us any good. Then I'd have to deal with his voice or his freezing, gorgon gaze and that's enough to put a damper on my day."

Prometheus chewed on his fingernail as he thought things over.

"Maelstrom… You know your master. What are the odds that he'll come here?"

Maelstrom was quiet for a moment as he flexed his claws.

"It is rare that he chooses to investigate something personally. But the odds of him sending an agent are quite high. The digital world and its various powers have changed since Norn unleashed Project X on it. He will desire to catalogue all the changes to see how it will affect his position."

"Hmmm…not as though it will do much as far as _he's_ concerned," mused Prometheus. "But, if I were in his position, I'd do the same thing. Significant changes require at least some measure of investigation on the off chance that they could damage you." Prometheus tapped his thumb against his chin thoughtfully. A grin spread across his face. "This will make things _interesting."_

Prometheus swiveled towards Maelstrom in an almost dance-like manner with a playful grin on his face. "So…about young Suzie…"

"Events progress, as always. It's a merely a matter of time." Maelstrom's eyes glowed ominously. "Should GranDracmon come here, we may not be able to afford that time in order to complete your objectives."

"On the contrary, I think we'll have plenty of time, even accounting for the Lord of Darkness. Sending an agent or coming himself, he can serve as a decent distraction anyway."

"And should he expose us?"

Prometheus shrugged nonchalantly. "There is more than one way to skin a cat, to borrow a human saying. We set the dominoes falling anyway, and that's all we need. Atsuo will target Suzie, and the increase of Wild Ones entering the real world will likewise put stress on her. Speaking of which…" Prometheus snapped his fingers. Violet, flame patterns flashed the length of his arm and a digital field appeared in the sky. "…I think it's about time that we had another incursion."

With a powerful roar, a black winged Devidramon ripped free from the digital field and immediately swooped down into the city. Prometheus smirked and crossed his arms over his chest.

"Now all we have to do is sit back and enjoy the show. Well, except for you that is. _You_ had better get back to your duty. We can't have you slacking on the job now, can we?"

Maelstrom _hmmmphed_ and vanished from sight.

Prometheus watched the Devidramon as it surged over the city and towards a specific elementary school. His smirk drew even wider across his face as expectation surged through him.

"Now young Suzie… Show me what little girls are made of."

* * *

A/N: Prometheus' plans continue apace, focusing ever more on Suzie. Poor girl. He's not going to give her a second to rest.

Now that the Tamers returned home, there was a bit of slowing things down to work on some of the characters and developing some of the subplots that I have going on. I wound up focusing a bit more on Ayaka and Kenta mainly because they became my favorite duo to write about in the last fic and I wanted to show some measure of progression between them (though it's something that confuses the hell out of Kenta, and will be something he's going to wonder about in the future). There's a bit of irony in how the seriousness of their relationship that Takato and Rika haven't yet picked up on themselves despite being closer in so many ways, but that may change in the future. Also, I imagine anyone would be worried significantly about the injury Kenta received, even if it was healed up fine by his partner, so I didn't want to just brush that under the carpet and forget about it.

Not too much else to say about this chapter. Until the next one then.

-Crazyeight

* * *

8


	20. Seeds of Wrath

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.

Revival

Chapter: 20/ Seeds of Wrath

Guilmon dug into the ground, piling up the dirt in one vast pile. The crimson dinosaur laughed gleefully as his nose went to work. There was treasure here. He could smell it. The question was, just how far down was it?

Guilmon laughed again as his claws scraped away another layer of dirt with all the efficiency of a bulldozer. Since his existence became more accepted around Shinjuku, fear of being seen was not something he considered any longer except in those rare cases where he went outside of his usual boundaries. Even with the worry of anti-digimon groups that have been on the rise worldwide Shinjuku was a safe place, enabling him to walk undisturbed amongst the crowd even when Takato was at school. He was generally well liked by the citizenry and had more than his fair share of people who would donate him food as thanks for saving the city. Such was a similar case now. Over the course of the past few months, some young, non-Tamer children took to playing games with him, such as burying treasure for him to find. Why this was, Guilmon didn't know, but they all had a great deal of fun together. He felt bad that they didn't have time to play with him today, having to go to school this year, but there was always another time.

_Maybe I can introduce them to Takato and the others. Then we can all have fun together._

Guilmon smiled. He had only the foggiest notion of what fame was, having never directly asked Takato about it, but if this was it, he had to admit that he liked it.

Guilmon's claw clanked against a metal box. Had he discovered the hidden treasure at long last? Guilmon stretched his arms, preparing for what would be the final dig when all of his senses suddenly pushed forward, blowing away all thoughts about his find. His pupils dilated to slits and he stood up straight, scanning the sky.

_Something's coming,_ he thought, a low, guttural growl emanating from his mouth. There was a familiar sensation behind what he was sensing, but at the same time, it was slightly different. Either way, his instincts were screaming at him to go and do battle with it.

_Which way?_ Guilmon asked himself, his head swiveling to and fro. As though in response to his unvoiced question, a massive, winged form blew past him from overhead. Guilmon stood there, somewhat dumbfounded for a moment before quickly scrambling out of his hole and rushing in close pursuit of the wild digimon.

* * *

Suzie sat down heavily into her seat, dropping her lunch tray onto her desk and digging into it with very little energy. In spite of the fact that Atsuo was presently staying behind at the Principal's office receiving a dressing down by the Principal, the school psychologist, and now his mother, she didn't feel at all glad. She knew that it should have, but having spent so much time in Atsuo's company, dealing with his naked aggression, she knew that today's incident would only be the beginning of still more torment. His being moved into a different class wouldn't change a thing, except reduce the amount of time he was near her. Atsuo would be sure to make up for that. Already her mind was going over the numerous ways he would come targeting her. Lunch, recess, and after school were the most likely suspects. For lunch he wouldn't have to act in a direct fashion. After all, as long as she lacked proof and he plead innocent it would be an open and shut case. She couldn't expect Atsuo's friends to rat out on him all the time like before. Likewise, despite his history, as long as he wasn't caught in the act, it didn't make much difference.

_Recess doesn't help much either. He can always claim he was trying to become more friendly by trying to play with me. And after school…I'll only have Lopmon to protect me, and she can't hurt any humans. _Suzie pulled her hand into a tight fist and bit her lip. _Which means, I'm on my own._

Suzie looked at her meal, which consisted of rice, something that could be called meat, and the ever-present spud balls that even the older Tamers had 'fond memories' of. _The school food is always so unappetizing,_ she thought. _I should have asked Mom to pack me one instead of being stubborn. I'll probably get sick from this…_

The entrance to the room clicked open and all conversation died as Atsuo and Ms. Asagi entered. Atsuo, book bag in hand, looked ashen. His dark hair and eyes gave him something of a haunted look, and for once, though only for an instant, Suzie felt pity for him. But it was only for an instant.

_You reap what you sow,_ she thought, remembering something she had read once. _The jerk got what was coming to him._

Still, she couldn't help but feel even a little bit sorry for him. He was leaving his friends behind, and he faced the wrath of his mother as well. He would undoubtedly face it in full force once he got home, and she, like all children, never looked forward to that sort of thing. But there was nothing she could do about it, and after all the years of torment he had heaped up on her, she found it difficult to go beyond that small grain of pity, or for it to even last long.

As he passed her desk towards his in the back, Suzie tensed up, expecting a confrontation. Surprisingly, he did nothing. He did not even look at her, and instead continued on towards his desk. Upon arrival he began pulling out his things and stuffing them in his bag.

_So it's official,_ she breathed mentally. _He really is getting pulled out of here._ She had her doubts as to whether or not it would stick, given that parents held some sway over the school but it looked like her side carried more weight.

Two chairs clinked as Atsuo's friends rushed over to his seat. Words were already falling out of their mouths in harsh whispers, not wanting to be overheard. She caught some of it anyway. One of them offered apologies for breaking under the pressure, while the other wanted to know how Atsuo was doing. Atsuo didn't reply to either of them, and continued to pile his things into his bag. After a few more minutes, the quiet zip of his bag closing signaled that he was finished. Stepping away from his seat, he headed back down the aisle, his steps echoing loudly in Suzie's ears.

He stopped by Suzie's desk.

"What do you want?" she asked, leaning her head into her hand as she chewed over her rice. Atsuo narrowed his dark eyes at her.

"You lied," he said simply. "I'm not going to forget it."

Suzie blinked. "Huh?"

Suzie wasn't the only one to be surprised by that. One of his friends, the one who had tried to apologize to him, was the next to speak up.

"A-Atsuo. She didn't lie about that. Yesterday we really…"

"Enough!" Ms. Asagi's voice cut across the discussion like a razor, and once again, the room went silent. "Atsuo. Hurry up with your things. I'll be showing you to your new classroom now."

Atsuo closed his hand into a tight fist, still glaring at Suzie. His dark eyes, pool-like in the depth they held, took on a more frightening appearance of menace than Suzie was used to, and she felt her arms prickle at his gaze.

"I'm not going to forget," he reaffirmed, and with that he turned and headed for the door, Ms. Asagi following closely behind, eyeing him and Suzie warily. Suzie watched him go until the door closed and she sighed heavily. Conversation exploded throughout the classroom and Atsuo's two friends looked beside themselves, one with an expression of confusion and the other with anger mixed with disgust. Suzie clasped both hands over her ears, trying to block it all out. All at once, she felt exhausted. She wanted to go home and sleep this whole day off. She had been under so much stress that she was starting to wonder if she would find gray hairs when she got home.

Suzie's fingers crawled into her hands as she thought about the day. Atsuo. She could not believe his nerve, claiming that he had done nothing when he really did. And what was worse, he claimed innocence even after he threatened Lopmon, her partner!

_No! _Suzie thought fiercely to herself, clenching her eyes shut. _I don't care what happens to him now! He hasn't once given me a chance and kept right on harassing me! He got what was coming to him, and this time was the straw that broke the camel's back! No more! I'm not going to take any more from him! If he comes after me or Lopmon again—_especially_ Lopmon—because of this, I…I'm going to…_

A tap on her shoulder caused the young girl to jump in surprise. Suppressing a light gasp, Suzie whirled about to find one of her fellow classmates, a girl with coppery braids and suspender pants, standing demurely behind her.

"A-Anko," Suzie stammered. "W-What's up?"

"Um…" the girl pointed towards the window. "Your bunny-mon is at the window."

Suzie raised an eyebrow and followed Anko's finger over towards the window where her gaze fell upon a familiar, brown and gray-furred rabbit digimon.

"Lopmon!" Suzie exclaimed, rising from her seat and heading over towards her. It was at that moment that her digivice suddenly gave out a cry of alarm. Stopping, Suzie reached down and pulled out it off her belt, activating the scanning function.

Movement from the window grabbed her attention as the holographic circle appeared. Glancing up, Suzie's eyes widened in horror as a Devidramon swung into view, its course set dead center on little Lopmon.

* * *

Renamon leapt from rooftop to rooftop, aiming in the direction that she sensed the wild digimon heading towards.

_It seems to be heading towards Takato and Henry's old school,_ mused Renamon, narrowing her blue eyes. She didn't like what that entailed. It was bad enough that their battles against wild digimon often took place in the presence of civilians. For it to happen where defenseless children were did not bode well at all.

_They're not entirely defenseless,_ she told herself. _Suzie and Lopmon are there. They'll be able to provide relief until one of us can get there. Everything should be fine._

Rebounding off another roof, Renamon soared through the air. As she did so, her instincts grabbed hold of her, and looking down she found Guilmon already on the prowl, heading in the same direction that she was. Renamon smiled. Even though Takato wasn't with him, she felt better having another one of the partner digimon heading into battle. Not that she wasn't confident in her skills to adequately handle any Wild One, but numbers were always better, especially when dealing with a situation that would be as hard as this. With so many innocents in the way, there was little chance that they could exercise their full strength to eliminate the enemy, should it be required.

Redirecting her path of flight, Renamon phased out of view and reappeared next to Guilmon.

"Renamon!" Guilmon greeted cheerfully, continuing to charge onwards while Renamon kept apace.

"Guilmon. I take it that you sense the Wild One as well?"

"Ah-huh!" Guilmon nodded. "It's heading towards the old school."

"I know. That's not going to make things easy for us. Guilmon, we're going to need to engage the digimon before the others get there and try and lure it away to a secluded location—the park if we can. Depending on the digimon's type, one of us will have to create a distraction while the other looks for an opening. I'm coordinating with Rika, and she's on her way. She's letting the others know what's going on as well and will update them as we go."

Guilmon nodded again. "Sounds like a good plan," he agreed. "But what about Lopmon? Isn't she always there?"

"I have no doubt that she and Suzie are there and will stand up to do battle, however we must be ready for every eventuality. Including the possibility that Suzie may not be able to perform her duty."

"You know, that sounds like a good idea." Guilmon smiled. "You've always been good when it came to ideas."

Renamon allowed a small smile to grace her muzzle. "My. Why thank you."

Guilmon's confidence aside, Renamon couldn't help but worry. There was little choice in the matter however. The enemy had chosen the battlefield before any of them could react, and as such, they were facing severe restrictions.

_How odd… Most digimon are unable to leave the digital field until their data has stabilized enough to allow their integration into the real world. Few digimon have done such things, namely the Devas, but they had to absorb vast amounts of electronic equipment to speed up their stabilization. Hmmm…_

"Guilmon. I'm going to go on ahead. Try and get there as soon as you can."

Guilmon nodded and increased his speed as Renamon vanished into thin air, teleporting as quickly as she could to the location.

* * *

With a groan, the rabbit Deva digimon known as Antylamon pushed herself up from off the ground, rubble falling from her shoulders. She had barely been able to digivolve in time and redirect the attack from the Devidramon. The school still suffered some damage, as evidenced by the bits and pieces of the roof and part of her partner's classroom that continued to rain upon the ground, but all things considered, it could have been much, much worse.

_I just hope that no one inside is hurt,_ she thought, getting to her feet. The Devidramon was quickly following suit. Its crimson eyes glared at her malevolently, its tail swishing like an angry cat. It flapped its wings and began to rise from the ground, growling. Antylamon narrowed her eyes.

_Devidramon. Virus type. This is not good. There will be no negotiation here. These digimon will not stop attacking until they've destroyed their targets or until they themselves are deleted. Best to end this quickly._

**"Bunny Blades!"**

Getting into a crouch, Antylamon raised her arms and her hands morphed into a pair of axes. The Devidramon roared in challenge to her aggressive stance.

**"Dark Gale!"** the Devidramon shouted, and a blast of crimson energy shot out from its eyes. Sweeping its massive axes to the side, Antylamon brushed off the blast and surged into the air, aiming at the Devidramon's neck. The demonic dragon pulled back and lashed out with its tail, aiming towards Antylamon's face. The rabbit Deva merely swatted the appendage aside and continued on forward momentum.

_Even though I'm at a type disadvantage,_ thought Antylamon as she drew closer, _I'm a high level Ultimate and he is a medium level Champion. This is no contest._

Then, as though in response to her thoughts, a red aura accompanied by a circular symbol appeared upon its chest. The dragon's arm shot out and grabbed Antylamon by the wrist. With a quick twist, the Deva was hurled to the ground, where she impacted with tremendous force. Antylamon felt the air rush out of her lungs in one swift rush, but she was quickly back on her feet…only to once more be greeted by the Devidramon as it crashed into her from behind. Morphing her axes back into hands, Antylamon reached up towards her assailant.

"Get…_off!"_ Antylamon growled, becoming impatient with the battle. There were far too many lives being risked here for this battle to continue. Crouching, Antylamon leapt backwards and soared over the school gates with the Devidramon still attached on her back. Giving a surprised screech, the Devidramon raked her face with his claws, causing her to cry out in pain and surprise. Distracted by the attack, Antylamon forgot to correct her balance and came crashing down into the streets.

* * *

Suzie cried out as her hands went up to her face, surprising those classmates who continued to stay in the room. Pain reverberated through the connection that she shared with her partner, blanketing her mind. Taking deep breaths, Suzie fought against the pain.

"S-Suzie!" exclaimed Anko worriedly. "A-Are you okay?"

Suzie didn't answer right away, and instead devoted herself to rallying her mind against the pain. She was quickly recovering. Retuning her focus, her eyes looked out through Antylamon's. The Deva was trying to get her bearings. As for the Devidramon…

A blast suddenly rocked her from behind, and Suzie stumbled, feeling the impact from her partner.

_Well, that answers that question,_ she thought as Anko's hands shot out and grabbed hold of her.

"I'm fine. I'm fine," coughed Suzie, waving off Anko's assistance. "Antyalmon just needs a second here…"

Suzie grated her teeth together. _This Devidramon seems pretty tough. I've never fought one before, but this…this is kind of weird. I don't think we've ever faced a Champion that actually made me feel this much through the link. It's just like what happened before with the Triceramon. It was at a lower level but it somehow managed to take out Takato and Guilmon. Why…Why is that?_

"Children!" shouted Ms. Asagi, throwing the door open. A frantic look was on her face. "Please! We've got to hurry up and get out of here! The digimon…"

"…They're out of the school grounds," wheezed Suzie. "Right now, we won't be able to get out of here without running into them."

"We're heading down to the basement," corrected Ms. Asagi. "It used to be a bomb shelter back during the Second World War. I don't know how well those things would stand up against digimon, but it's better than just staying here without any protection at all. Do you understand?"

"Yeah," nodded Suzie. "But…I've got to help my partner. This digimon is stronger than it should be, and Antylamon is having trouble fighting it. I think I'm going to need my cards for this."

Suzie patted down her pockets, and frowned when she didn't find any. Quickly she rushed over to her desk. It was against school rules to keep personal belongings in it, but as a Tamer she knew that she needed them nearby at all times, just like her digivice. Besides, she didn't trust the privacy of her locker or the cubby's. Not with someone like Atsuo around anyway. Looking into her desk, Suzie frowned when she saw that her deck box wasn't at the front like she had left it. Overturning her desk, Suzie dumped its contents onto the ground to speed up the process of searching. Papers, notebooks, textbooks, and pencils hit the ground, but not a single card joined them.

"Wha…?" Suzie rasped, feeling flummoxed by this sudden turn of events. "But… I don't understand. They should be right he…"

Suzie was abruptly cut off as pain suddenly erupted in her side.

* * *

**"Black Bite!"** Devidramon growled, fastening its mouth against Antylamon's side. The rabbit Deva let loose a cry as the demonic creature bit down hard with his black teeth. Bashing her fist into the side of his head, Antylamon tore away, cupping her free hand against her wound. Shimmering data drifted away from the injury, and darkness tinged the wound.

_Viral infection,_ Antylamon frowned. _I was lucky to have gotten away when I did. If I had been a second slower, I'd be getting the full package._

Antylamon pulled back a bit. Normally she wouldn't even be at all worried by any viral infections from digimon of a lower level, but in this case she didn't think she could afford to take any chances. The Devidramon was proving to be surprisingly difficult to defeat, being fast where it should have been slow, and powerful where she should have destroyed it.

_Its strength seems to be coming from that symbol on its chest,_ thought Antylamon, focusing her gaze on it. _It looks…familiar. Where have I seen it before?_

Antylamon brushed the question aside for the moment. This was not the time to be thinking about such things. She had to destroy the digimon and fast before the situation escalated any further. Otherwise…

**"Dead Eyes."**

Antylamon froze. Her gaze had drifted up to Devidramon's and all at once, her body locked up. She was paralyzed.

_What? _Antylamon's mind cried out as she recognized the technique. _No! This can't be! Hypnosis type attacks shouldn't be able to affect digimon that are of a higher level than the digimon casting it. How in the digital world is this Devidramon even doing this? _

The Devidramon began to advance towards her, and Antylamon threw everything she was against the paralysis that held her captive. A finger twitched in response, but otherwise the technique held. She refused to give up though, and continued to press against it. However, like a wall, it did not so much as budge an inch. The Devidramon's eyes glowed crimson as it took aim…

**"Diamond Storm!"**

A flurry of crystalline shards rained down upon the Devidramon, causing it to look away. Its focus broken, Antylamon began to emerge from her paralysis. Her arms lifted and her mouth began to work, striving to speak the words that would transform her hands into axes.

**"Bu…nny…"**

Antylamon's mouth became stuck and refused to budge. Again she threw her will against the seemingly insurmountable barrier that held her frozen. She could see Renamon leaping into the air out of the corner of her eye, deftly dodging Devidramon's attack. The dragon lunged towards her, howling in rage.

_Got…to…move. Suzie…please… Help me…_

As though her prayers were being answered, a sudden surge of energy flowed through her, making her gasp in surprise. Her arms began to move more rapidly. The energy…it tasted bitter. It was like swallowing fire—not at all dissimilar from the force that caused her to digivolve when she entered Zhuqiaomon's service. To feel this from Suzie though…somehow it felt…_wrong._

_ I've felt this before too,_ Antylamon thought as her hands began to shift into their axe forms. _Back during the fight with the Triceramon…when Suzie became desperate._

The energy flowed even more rapidly now, blanketing her mind. The sight of the Devidramon filled her mind. It was her entire focus. The pain in her side where Devidramon had bitten her flared suddenly in response, but Antylamon was beyond it now. She was already moving forward, aiming towards the Devidramon. Her axe hands rose into the air and surged towards the demonic digimon. The dragon turned towards her, already roaring with challenge at her…

…only to be cut off mid-roar as a yellow ribbon stabbed through its throat. The creature's roar turned into a surprised, garbled squawk and its body began to dissolve. Looking up in surprise, Antylamon followed the ribbon up to its owner, a Crusadermon. The pink armored Royal Knight hovered in the air for a moment before suddenly disappearing from view, and then reappearing directly in front of her.

"Sorry about this," said the Crusadermon simply before driving her Pile Bunker shield directly into Antylamon's forehead, causing her view of the world to disappear completely.

* * *

A/N: And so the battle ends quickly, though it wasn't as easy for Antylamon as it normally would have been. Just so everyone knows, that is Ayaka's Crusadermon, but since she only just came back from the digital world, Antylamon wouldn't know that it was her ally. Her reasons for doing what she did to Antylamon will be touched upon in the next chapter, continuing the Suzie portion of the story. Until then.

-Crazyeight

* * *

7


	21. Broken Base

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.

Revival

Chapter: 21/ Broken Base

Maelstrom's metal tail swished through the air like an angry cat.

"That was…unexpected," he said finally to Prometheus, who was crouched on his haunches, munching on a piece of Guilmon Bread. Prometheus merely grinned between mouthfuls.

"Not entirely. However, we are going to have to be on our guard once we're through with Suzie. Crusadermon is the most likely to recognize the signs. She, as a Royal Knight, has been briefed on this matter, and if she puts two and two together, namely when we jump targets, she'll recognize that there is something at work. Once she notices that specific Tamers are being targeted, she'll be able to go from there. After all, what we're aiming for is not entirely out of the range of possibility, even for this world."

"The Resurrection?"

"Namely."

Maelstrom's eyes gleamed. "How much does the Royal Knight know about the inner-workings of the digital world? Even I have never heard of what you're planning to revive."

Prometheus shoved the last remains of his meal into his mouth, dusted off his hands, and stood up.

"Only as much as Yggdrasil needed her to know," Prometheus informed after swallowing. "And when it came to the Demon Lords and all corrupted digimon, there was a lot of information that was 'need to know'. Little Norn wouldn't have withheld that kind of information. Not where the safety of the digital world was concerned."

"That's hard to believe," Maelstrom scoffed. "Norn has…changed much from her previous incarnation. Yggdrasil…"

"…Was a lot more secretive and underhanded, yes I know," Prometheus replied, giving him a dismissive wave. "Of course, he wasn't always like that. Back when he was ENIAC, he was a lot closer to the Sovereign Azulongmon. His encounters with Milleniummon, followed by the explosion of the Digital Hazard, I guess you could say, really rocked his world. To the point where he was more concerned about just surviving then protecting. Safeguarding the digital world was something like an extension of that. But we're digressing from the main point of this conversation. How is Suzie?"

"Progressing, but slowly." Maelstrom's tail again twitched irritably. "Crusadermon's interference has slowed things down. The viral infection that Antylamon received from the Devidramon would have sped things up considerably."

"Actually…" Prometheus tapped his chin thoughtfully. "…It's a good thing that she did interfere when she did."

"Oh?" Maelstrom raised a bemused eyebrow. Seeing his confusion, Prometheus nodded.

"Indeed. While the viral infection would have been a good factor for my plans, it's hardly what I'm looking for, and would preclude the possibility of Suzie and Lopmon coming out of the experience in good shape. I don't want dead or crippled Tamers in this case. Ditto for their digimon, and I'd rather that there be no serious, outside influences such as viruses. It…takes away from the 'human' experience, if you understand me."

"What about Bakumon, then? Is he not an outside influence?"

"Touché," grinned Prometheus. "However, unlike viruses, Bakumon doesn't have the tendency of devouring his targets whole or, as the D-Reaper was so often quoting, 'spreading beyond its boundaries'. The target remains whole, and in the end, what's being influenced is more or less what they are already concerned about. Bakumon merely brings it up to the surface, and for our purposes it is done so that Suzie simply cannot hide from it, or shut away painful memories. What she ends up doing is entirely up to her, and not because of some insipid virus." Prometheus paused. "No offense."

"None taken," growled Maelstrom, flexing his claws. Prometheus smiled with slight amusement at his companion and turned away.

"So what's the situation report on the Dark Area breach?"

"It's currently under containment by Hypnos' Gateway program." Maelstrom's claws clinked together. "We can expect a reprisal from my master."

Prometheus stretched his arms out, hands together, and cracked his knuckles. "Yippee skippee," he grunted. "I love a good chat with a fallen force that's almost as old as the digital world. What about the human? Whatsis name…the son of the Damon guy. Marcus…yeah. That's it. What's he up to right now? Anything interesting, or is he stuck in the Gateway thing too?"

"He is currently off our sensors," Maelstrom replied. "There was a massive release of energy by his partner following the Tamers' retreat from the digital world, and then he was gone. He may be unconscious, or trapped in the Gateway. It is difficult to tell for certain." Maelstrom clicked his claws together once again. "There is something else… Something passed through the Gateway and into the Dark Area unimpeded."

Prometheus raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"

"Yes. And it also had a…familiar presence."

Prometheus rubbed his chin and grinned.

"Well…well…well. This is interesting. I did wonder about that." Prometheus chuckled and continued, more to himself then to his companion. "GranDracmon, you sly Terriermon. So you took _him_ into your service. This will get interesting…"

Maelstrom looked at Prometheus with surprised eyes. "You know who it is?"

"Why don't we tag a _what_ onto that statement as well?" laughed Prometheus, snapping his fingers. "Damn. If I wasn't so busy, I'd sit back and watch the show for this one. Actually," Prometheus' eyes gleamed, "we can use this. Yes. Let's draw out our little Dark Wanderer right into the sunlight for all to see. He may very well provide enough of a distraction. But first, we'll need something big enough to warrant his coming here." Yggdrasil tapped his fingers together. "Continue working on Suzie. I'm going to pay Norn and her knights a little visit."

With that, Prometheus disappeared into thin air, leaving Maelstrom alone to ponder their conversation.

* * *

* * *

With a groan, Lopmon opened her eyes to find the figures of Shibumi and Daisy standing right above her, relieved expressions on their faces.

"Welcome back," greeted Shibumi, setting down a wired, pen-like utensil before turning to the blond haired woman next to him. "How are the readouts, Daisy?"

Daisy turned her face away from Lopmon and looked ahead, a more serious expression settling on her. After a moment, a smile broke across her features and she sighed.

"Readouts are looking normal, _doctor."_ Both Daisy and Shibumi chuckled. Lopmon raised an eyebrow, unable to see what was so funny. With a groan, the little dark furred bunny sat up. Wires bumped against her body, and it was just then that she noticed that she was connected t o a machine sitting behind her.

"Easy there," said Shibumi. "You were just cleaned out of a viral infection from your battle with the Devidramon. You shouldn't exert yourself."

"Thank you," replied Lopmon weakly, her mind doing pinwheels. "W-What about Suzie?"

"Suzie's fine," eased Daisy, setting a hand on Lopmon's head and stroking her fur softly. "She's outside this room, waiting for you to wake up. Would you like for me to go get her?"

Lopmon nodded and laid back down. For some reason, sitting up was proving to be taxing for her. She felt weak and exhausted. "What happened?"

"You were infected," clarified Shibumi as Daisy moved to leave the room. "You see, the digimon you were fighting, a Devidramon, secrete a computer virus in their fangs, kind of like how some serpents do right here in the real world with venom. They bite you, and you get sick. Only in this case, the virus will reproduce like crazy."

Lopmon nodded slowly. She was starting to remember the fight now.

"It…shouldn't have happened though," she replied after a moment of careful consideration. "I was a higher level. Those kinds of attacks don't normally work on higher level digimon."

Shibumi nodded. "We'll get to the bottom of it. Don't you worry."

The door clicked open and in walked Daisy with Suzie in front of her. Lopmon turned her head towards her partner. The poor girl's eyes were all bloodshot and puffy looking.

_She must have been crying,_ the bunny digimon thought, offering the girl a small, tired smile.

"Hey, Suzie…"

With a cry, Suzie flung herself forward and wrapped her arms around her partner—carefully. Lopmon's smile grew as she unconsciously nuzzled her face into the crook of her partner's neck, basking in her warmth. As rough as the girl could be sometimes when they played, Lopmon would always know that there was something worth it all to have Suzie as her partner.

* * *

"She got lucky," said Janyu to Yamaki and Riley as they watched the scene through the glass window. "I'll need to collaborate with Shibumi afterwards, but from what I could tell, the virus that was spreading through Lopmon was an unusually malignant type. 'Enhanced' you could say."

"I see," Yamaki nodded. A small frown appeared on his face. "According to Crusadermon, Lopmon was on the verge of a dark digivolution…"

"Which was why she knocked her unconscious," added Riley. Yamaki nodded again.

"And if we take what happened with Takato and Guilmon as a model, she did the right thing. I want you, Shibumi, and Daisy to go over every last byte of Lopmon's data to make sure she has a clean bill of health." Yamaki flicked his lighter open and looked over at Riley. "Schedule her for an appointment with Itsuya Takahashi as well."

"Yamaki," began Janyu with a touch of concern in his voice, "with all due respect…"

"I understand Janyu, but this is a serious event to come down from. Your daughter has already been under quite a high degree of stress if I understand her reports from school correctly." Janyu looked a bit shocked at that, but Yamaki ignored it. "Something like this will only increase her stress level, which could increase the risk of a digivolution gone wrong. If there is the slightest possibility that Lopmon is still infected, Suzie's emotional well-being is going to be our best chance at keeping her contained. For now, I want Suzie on a lockdown from Tamer-related missions and her partner under surveillance."

"Yamaki!" exclaimed Janyu. "That…that's a little extreme, don't you think?"

"Suzie can potentially digivolve her partner to the Mega level," said Yamaki simply. "If she were to do so at a critical moment where it could go right or wrong, it might jeopardize the status of Tamers as protected citizens of Japan and eliminate the Tamer program altogether. I don't think I need to remind to remind you that there are anti-digimon groups both within and outside our borders. There are many countries who only need a reason to begin looking for a way to destroy the digital world. Shibumi's efforts with establishing the Morpheus Initiative in the United States and extending it internationally can very easily come to nothing because of one accident."

"But…still," began Janyu. "She's just a child."

"She's also a Tamer. You already know that there have been…incidents worldwide of negative reaction against Tamers. Tamers being used as child-soldiers in battles between other countries, or being attacked and abandoned by their families and communities just for being Tamers. You are fortunate that the populace of Shinjuku is far more understanding, but good fortune is not something that we can depend on, as your daughter's unfortunate circumstances in school have shown."  
"Yamaki…" Janyu narrowed his eyes. "I'm not sure if I like the idea of you having so much access to the records of my children..."

"Mr. Wong," spoke up Riley before Yamaki could say anything more. "We are only concerned about your daughter's wellbeing. To be fair, Yamaki's concerns are not without precedent, nor should we ignore this. But…" Riley turned to her superior. "Sir. Terriermon and Henry Wong are both in the household. I don't think there's any reason to maintain a constant watch on the girl. As long as she's with her older brother and his friends, things should be fine." Riley furrowed her brow. "The Tamers have a very strong sense of connection to each other. I don't think Suzie would easily become a risk just like that."

"Are you willing to stake your career—even people's lives on that?" asked Yamaki.

"Sir. They helped defeat the D-Reaper with their bond. As ridiculous as it sounds, I'm going by that."

Yamaki stared at Riley for a moment before flicking his lighter closed with a loud click.

"Janyu. We're still going to have Suzie placed under surveillance. It will be a single agent and they'll make certain that they will not be visible or interfere with your private lives unless your family appears to be in danger."

"But Yamaki…"

"This discussion is over."

With that, Yamaki pocketed his lighter and left the room. Riley tossed a concerned glance over at Janyu before quickly following the blond haired head of Hypnos.

* * *

"Laying it on a little bit thick, aren't you?" Riley asked as she followed behind her employer.

"I'm only making sure that we're eliminating possible avenues of danger," said Yamaki.

Riley narrowed her eyes. "Gee. If we were going by that line of thinking, shouldn't you have had the Tamers all shot by now?"

Yamaki paused and shot a look at Riley. The woman gave him an apologetic look.

"Sorry. That really wasn't the right thing to say."

"Something on your mind, Riley?"

"You mean besides you leaving me in the dark earlier? I have a job to do, sir, and I feel like I can't do it with you leaving out information. You're looking for something and I don't know what I can give you if I don't know what you're looking for."

"In this case, the only way that I can properly assess what I'm looking for is for you to not know."

"Sir, that doesn't make any sense."

Yamaki continued apace. "How are the Tamers? Have you finished writing up the report from their experiences in the digital world?"

Riley scowled, not liking how the man was changing the subject.

"I still need to finish interviewing them all. Crusadermon left rather abruptly to fight the Devidramon. She destroyed another window by the way."

Yamaki nodded. "All right. When you're finished, seal the reports and send them straight to me. I'm going to have a talk with Itsuya."

* * *

Itsuya Takahashi was just taking a sip from his cup of coffee when Yamaki's knock rang upon his door. Looking up with a startled expression on his face, the man adjusted his glasses and leaned back in his chair.

"Hello Mitsuo," he said, grinning a little at his friend. "Something I can do for you?"

"As a matter of fact, yes," Yamaki said, entering the room. "I trust that you're up to date on the Tamers current psyche profiles?"

"As a matter of fact, I am," Itsuya replied, taking another sip from his coffee mug. "There are a number of individuals that I would like to see personally." Itsuya lifted a pair of files that he had lying on his desk. "Takato Matsuki and Rika Nonaka being among them. According to their profiles, they've established a 'link' of sorts between each other. I would like to know what sort of effect that has on the…"

"You'll have to wait on those two," interrupted Yamaki. "I have a specific Tamer I would like you to see as soon as possible."

"Does this have anything to do with the alarms that were blaring earlier?" asked Itsuya, dropping the two files back down on his desk. Yamaki nodded and lifted one folder. Itsuya raised an eyebrow as he saw it. "Suzie Wong."

"Yes."

"You know, I did want to interview her first among all the Tamers. Given her age and that she's more active than the twin Tamers, I thought it would be a good idea to get inside her head and prepare for any issues that might occur in the future as she starts going through puberty. The trip that the others had to go on pretty much put a damper on that idea though…"

"Then we're bringing you right back to the beginning," said Yamaki.

"So what happened? I presume something did happen, considering that you're here requesting—or rather _ordering_ me to interview her."

"There was a battle at Suzie's school, and her partner was infected by a computer virus from the attacking digimon. As you may or may not know, when the Tamer's partner reaches the Ultimate level, the two of them become connected, sharing strength and sensation with each other. What one feels, the other feels as well."

"So you're worried that this…virus might have done something to Suzie?"

"There's a distinct possibility. It looks as though Lopmon's been cleaned out of the infection, but we have no idea how this sort of thing would effect a human being."

"I'd like to point out that I'm a psychiatrist, not a computer expert," said Itusya in a dry voice. "I wouldn't know my software from my hardware, let alone my volume control. How do you expect me to get a look into a person's brain and say 'she's not infected by a computer virus' without running something like a CAT scan? Really, Mitsuo, you're making me feel redundant here."

"There may be something that we'll end up missing as we look her over. A lot of what's going on is still in the theoretical field. Right now, looking in any direction is better than none at all."

"I take it your tech staff is clashing with the hospital orderlies on how to best look into this? I think I can hear the doctors crying already." Itsuya ran a hand through his thinning hair. "All right. Well, it's almost the end of the day, so we can't really schedule a session immediately. Let's see…what's the date? Friday? Golden Week is coming up. Suzie will still have school tomorrow and…" Itsuya paused. "How bad was the damage to the school?"

"Fortunately superficial and mostly restricted to the surrounding grounds. There are some structural concerns and I've already spoken with the Principal on the matter. Her school is going to be closed early to more accurately assess the damage and work out the repair schedule."

"And I'll bet the students are happy about that," nodded Itsuya sagely. "All right. I'd like to schedule a meeting with her tomorrow afternoon. It will give me some time to prepare."

"All right. Inform me of the time and I'll pass it along to her father."

"I will."

Itsuya leaned forward onto his desk as Yamaki left the office, folding his hands under his chin.

_Excellent,_ he thought to himself. _Things are going exactly as expected.

* * *

_

Rika sighed as she approached her school, bag slung over her shoulder. The bell was ringing, indicating that classes were now being let out. She furrowed her brow, resisting the urge to massage her head.

_There goes my Math and English classes,_ she thought to herself. She turned to her companion. "Looks like I'm going to have to stay after to get caught up on my lessons."

Takato Matsuki raised his eyebrows. "Do you want me to tell Chou Sensei?"

"Might as well," she replied. "After all, we both normally go train under him together."

"He doesn't always ask these things," said Takato, frowning. "If one of us doesn't show up, he takes it as it is. He doesn't like to pry into our personal lives unless it influences our performance you know."

"Ah." Rika sauntered onwards towards her school's gates. "Sometimes I wish that I didn't have to walk so far. If I didn't have to, this wouldn't be as big of an issue whenever a Wild One comes calling." Rika glanced over at Takato. "Speaking of which, don't _you_ have a school you've got to be going to?"

"My school lets out sooner than yours, remember?"

"That's right." Rika chuckled. "Sure makes a convenient excuse for you to walk me to school. Real cheesy Takato."

Takato's eyebrows shot upwards in surprise.

"R-Rika! It's…it's not…um… H-How do I say this? That is…uh…"

"Jeez, Takato. Even after all these years, you get all tongue tied over the stupidest things. Besides," Rika tapped her forehead and tapped his in turn, "remember you and I are connected up here."

They stopped at the gates. The sound of students entering the courtyard was now reaching their ears. Rika turned towards Takato, her violet eyes reaching up to meet his crimson ones. After a moment, two small smiles traced across their faces.

"I don't think I could ever forget, Rika. I'll try and make up for your warm-ups today."

"If it keeps you from kissing any more ground, sure." Raising one hand, Rika playfully punched his cheek. "You need to work on your form. Let me know how things go with Henry's sister, will ya?"

"W-Will do," Takato stammered. Shrugging her bag onto her shoulder, Rika stepped into the courtyard. Takato watched her go, a small amount of crimson staining his face.

_She really has a way of ending a conversation, doesn't she?_

Guilmon, who had been following his partner, approached Takato from behind and tugged on his school uniform.

"Takato? Shouldn't we be going now?"

"Huh?" Takato blinked, snapping out of his reverie. "Oh! Yeah. Sure."

Slowly, reluctantly, the goggle-wearing Tamer departed.

* * *

Bakumon sat in his hiding place, watching events as they unfolded curiously. A flash of yellow caught his attention and his eyes swiveled towards it, losing it as quickly as it appeared. Furrowing his brow, the tusked digimon returned his attention to the red haired Tamer who made her way up towards the building ahead of her.

_So…this is how things are, huh? She has her partner and everything is settled._ A part of him felt a twinge of jealousy over it. He knew it was stupid to do so. It had been a long time—years in fact—since he last saw the Digimon Queen, hearing her demand to have only 'one strong digimon'. He and the others—Rookies, Champions, even Megas—they all gave way to one, simple Renamon, and that had ended things then and there. They all went their own ways, some of whom served other forces or struck out on their own—as Apocalymon and Musyamon had when they attacked the real world.

Power? He knew that compared to the previously aforementioned digimon he didn't compare—he couldn't compare even to the Renamon whose power she gave freely and willingly, but for her to casually dismiss even stronger digimon in favor of that one? It seemed…insulting.

_None of that matters now though,_ he thought quietly from his hiding spot. _I'm here, in the real world now, and in the same human city as the Digimon Queen. Could this mean that I have a chance at realizing my dream?_

Bakumon smiled. There was a bit of irony in that a digimon who fed on dreams had a dream of his own. This human girl…he once desired to be her partner—still did in fact, and now he was presented with an opportunity to make that dream a reality.

Could it work?

_I don't think it interferes with that Prometheus' guys plans,_ he thought. _So yeah. Let's give it a try._

With that, Bakumon disappeared in a puff of smoke, following his quarry.

* * *

A/N: A late update this week. What can I say? I've been busy with work and a separate side project, not to mention that I had to look up a few things from my previous work 'Less than Human' to make sure that I was working within the canon of my work. So my apologies if this chapter is at all lacking in any fashion. There are some things that will be touched on in the next chapter, namely Urocyomon's condition following his return to the real world, and a mess load of other things as well. For the record, the Chou Sensei that Takato mentions is Henry's.

A few other things I feel are worth mentioning. Digimon has always been a pretty optimistic show when depicting digimon and human partner relations with real world nations. Tamers and 02 were probably the closest to actually showing that interaction, though with 02 the risks involved were dealt with the World Tour arc involving a couple incidents of border crossing and internal problems. Largely the situations were pretty well contained and the world involvement with Tamers dealt more with the war against the D-Reaper and not the digital world itself per se (except maybe with an investigation into Hypnos following the Deva invasions). So, I guess what I'm trying to say is, what Yamaki was talking about with Janyu was just some of my own thoughts and questions on the matter. Listening to the news, one might think that digimon and their partners would end up getting a rather unwelcome reaction when their arrival usually involves extensive property damage and/or possession of individuals, never mind our rather worst side taking advantage of the situation.

Anyway, the plot continues, and I'm a bit glad to say that I think I've tacked down a direction to go concerning Rika and Takato's relationship. Going to take some planning though, so we'll see what happens. :P

'Till next chapter then.

-Crazyeight

* * *

8


	22. Complications

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.

Revival

Chapter: 22/ Complications

Kuroda stretched his arms and yawned. Muscles pulled tightly in a pleasant manner and he could feel small pops in his back. Normally this would be the sign of a good day. However, for Kuroda, this was far from the case.

"Tired?" came the voice of Tally from above him. Kuroda leaned back in his chair and grimaced.

"Only from staring at a computer program that doesn't seem to do anything," he growled. "I don't get it. We've tried rebooting, we've tried…" Kuroda paused and thought for a second. "Tally…what _haven't_ we tried to fix this problem? The Gateway seems to be stuck in a feedback loop or something. Memory keeps getting useless information dumped into it; it feeds it back into the digital world… I think all we've done really is slow down the expansion of whatever is going on in the digital world. In the meantime, our processing speed is being eaten up by this carnivore of data storage. Good lord." Kuroda massaged his eyes painfully. "My old professors from university would be crying in their sleep from this. I have to admit I'm stumped on this. I've tried what I think is every trick in the book short of destroying our systems with a sledgehammer, and somehow I don't think even _that_ will do anything."

"Knowing the digital world it will probably just spit out a portal or something."

"Tally? Please don't make jokes about this. My pride has already taken enough beatings as it is."

Tally gave the man a sympathetic smile and typed in a few quick commands. After a second, Kuroda's computer screen beeped. Looking up at it, he saw a little heart shape march across his screen with little glow lines popping up around it every half second. Kuroda couldn't help but smile.

"I think I'm more whipped than I thought," he said with a wry chuckle, massaging his eyes yet again. Tally laughed.

"Careful how you word yourself there."

"Tally, if only our coworkers knew…"

The man left his sentence unfinished ominously, causing the woman to flush brightly. Her fingers picked up their pace as she returned their attention to her work.

"It's going to be quitting time soon," Tally ventured. "Do you think we can come up with a solution before the night team shows up?"

"Not likely. This is bad. And I mean _really_ bad. We've even gone as far as unplugging the damn thing from the main Hypnos network and power sources, and as you saw," Kuroda hit a key and an image appeared on his computer screen, "nada. The Gateway we've set up has somehow become self-sustaining. Given the nature of the digital world this is hardly surprising, but troublesome all the same, mainly because of what's going on with the Gateway right now." Kuroda hit another button and pulled up the stats of his latest scan of the ring portal. "The Gateway is continuously transmitting a signal. It's _fixed_ on the Hypnos receivers. We can't get rid of it. This is kind of the opposite of what would normally happen…"

"Isn't that because of my last minute programming?" asked Tally. "We had to make the portal self-sustaining so that we could limit the expansion of…whatever that thing is in the digital world…"

"For simplicities sake, let's just call it the Fountain, because that seems to be what it is. We've got a hole in the surface level of the digital world that leads to another level…one that's different from any other that's been encountered by the Tamers thus far, and for some reason or other the hole has helped it to start merging into this one—spraying into it if you would. At the rate it was expanding, we never would have gotten the Tamers out of there fast enough—not with the way it was mucking up our systems anyway. And we needed to get them out of there fast. To have the portal stabilize long enough to clear out the metaphorical static, the data had to be sent somewhere, and we happen to be the best and most convenient location."

Kuroda leaned back in his chair.

"But we were assuming that we could get rid of it easily after that, so now we're left with the challenge of purging the data quickly or slowly. Since the latter isn't looking to promising what with the screwing around with our systems—and let's be honest, we're talking about purging _other worldly dimensional landscapes _here— we have to look at the former as our best option, and that means we've got to dump it somewhere." Kuroda ran a hand through his hair. "Jeez…I feel like a proponent for landfills now."

Tally pressed her lips together into one thin line as she looked at Kuroda. She wasn't sure what she could say to the man that would make him feel any better. She wasn't very happy about the situation herself, as it was her idea that got them into this mess. Regardless of whether or not they saved the Tamers, if this turned into a rather large problem, her plan would have caused a lot of long term problems for short term gains.

"Maybe we should have waited for a better plan," Tally said to herself, returning her attention to her control panel. Kuroda fixed her with a hard look.

"Tell me this isn't the part where I have to comfort you and tell you that you weren't in the wrong and that neither of us could have predicted this little sordid mess of affairs."

"What do you want me to say? This was my idea!"

"Ugh. Tally, if we can just dump the data in a quick manner or at least shut down the signal it's no big deal. Maybe if we modify one of the Tracers we can reflect the signal or something…"

"You're grasping at straws now, Kurry," chided Tally a little angrily, using her nickname for him. Kuroda grimaced and picked up his coffee mug.

"Fine. I can see that you need a few minutes of alone time. And I need to oil the gears, so if you'll excuse me…"

Getting up with a squeak from his chair, Kuroda left the main control room while Tally studiously tried to ignore him, her fingers working up a firestorm on her control panel.

* * *

_She can be such a sensitive…_ Kuroda took a moment to find a word that wouldn't demean Tally. _…person._

He frowned. The description didn't carry quite the right amount of expletives that he would otherwise utilize towards other people in situations like this, but this was Tally he was thinking about. As much as he prided himself on his rather rough personality, he had difficulty in bringing himself to be mean towards her, even in his own thoughts.

_Strange the effect that she's had on me over the years,_ he thought, taking a look into his coffee mug. It was distressingly low. Wandering in the direction of the break room, Kuroda sighed, once more wondering just how it was that he wound up in a relationship with her. As with all things that belonged to adults, he supposed that much of it had to do with bad judgment and more than a liberal use of stimulants to relax the body. To be fair, they both needed it after the grueling mess that they had to endure three years ago following the screw up with the Argus program, his own uncertain future, and the drive to bring the Tamers back from the digital world.

It had all been so overwhelming, and he just about drove himself into the dirt doing it even though he had absolutely no reason to want to perpetuate the Tamers' presence in Hypnos, or even the Japanese government's affairs. After all, they were mere children playing with far bigger toys than they should have been, and with far higher stakes as well. In the end he realized that the stakes of not helping them were far more risky than his own issues with helping them, and when all was said and done, he was exhausted. Tally, in line with her rather kind nature, took pity on him and more or less gave him a bowl of milk, or in this case Sake, and adopted him.

_To sum it up,_ he thought, entering the break room and joyfully finding a hot pot freshly made and waiting for him, _we both went out to blow off some steam, and the next thing I know I woke up in her bed with her next to me, uncomfortably naked. _

He still remembered the way she felt in his arms. Her smooth skin and soft, short hair. It had been enough to put him at ease…at least for that moment. When she woke up and looked up at him, smiling, it had been enough to wake him up to the reality of the situation. It took some time for him to get used to their relationship, nearly botching it several times along the way because he refused to accept it at first. Tally on the other hand…

_Thank God for her patience,_ he thought as he poured the steaming, life-giving coffee into his mug. _If it weren't for her, I'd be balding and gray haired by now from this job. And she…well, she wouldn't have to put up with me._

Kuroda took a sip and looked up at the line of coffee cups that sat above the coffee maker. Tally's own personal cup, nicknamed by the staff rather affectionately as the "Hogmon". After a moment's of consideration he took it off the shelf and filled it up, adding some sugar and cream just the way he knew she liked it. Picking up both mugs, Kuroda exited the break room, pausing just long enough to consider his options.

_She'll need a while longer to calm down before I can approach her with the peace offering,_ he thought. _I'd better go see how Urocyomon is doing._

If there was anything stranger than his relationship with Tally, Kuroda had to admit that the friendship he had struck up with the silver furred fox known as Urocyomon was at the top of the list. For the most part, he disdained digimon, seeing them as a sick circus show and took great pleasure in feeding pieces of Guilmon Bread to the pigeons in the park. Urocyomon however he considered to be an acception, if only because he had gotten to know the young Rookie through many long hours of talking. They didn't share much at all in common, not by a long shot, but the distant relationship they had coupled by a lack of care to become close, strangely enough, did just the opposite. They were far from best friends, but he couldn't help but feel even the slightest bit worried about the fox digimon.

_Now which way was he being held again? Oh yeah._

Entering an elevator, Kuroda went down to what the Hypnos staff called the 'Fish Exhibit' if only because of the massive water tanks that were stored there. Once they had been used to contain wild digimon that had been captured—and would mark the site of their grave as well as Yamaki was prone to scanning them to the point of deletion in those early days. Now, things had changed, and the storage tanks were used to provide heavily injured digimon a place where they could be contained while they healed and a safe way could be found to deal with them.

_Too bad most digimon aren't so cooperative,_ thought Kuroda as the elevator dinged and the doors opened. Stepping out, he walked over towards the enclosure of water tanks, scanning them to see if he could find Urocyomon. It didn't take him long to find it.

"How is he?" Kuroda asked a technician who was on hand, monitoring the floating digimon. The technician looked over at Kuroda with a raised eyebrow and nodded in greeting.

"He seems to be doing well. We've been experimenting with the use of electrical to assist in the healing process, and he seems to be responding well to the treatment. He should be out of there by the end of the day."

"Was the damage that extensive?" asked Kuroda looking up at the fox.

"Well…he was comatose when he was brought in. There was also some strange, foreign data that we detected as well. Nothing serious, but we decided to delete it anyway since it wasn't a part of his original digital makeup. We're running through a few scans just to make sure."

"Scans?" asked Kuroda, raising an eyebrow now. The technician laughed.

"Nothing like we had going on in the old days, believe me. This is very non-intrusive to the digimon's data bonds and will do nothing to affect their fractal code. We've tested this on live, captured specimens since the reorganization three years ago. Trust me. This is one hundred percent safe."

"I see," replied Kuroda in a deadpan manner, returning his attention to Urocyomon. The fox digimon continued to float there, limp and helpless. With a sigh, Kuroda turned and headed back towards the elevator.

_Might as well test the waters now…_

"Let me know when he gets out."

"Sure thing."

* * *

Takato stood in a guard pose, his eyes intent on the empty mat in front of him. He could hear Guilmon rummaging around him, trying to copy his movements and failing terribly, but his mind disregarded it. It wasn't important at this moment. All that mattered was his training…

Suddenly there came a surprised squawk and a second later, Takato's eye twitched, seeing movement. That was about as far as his reflexes got before Guilmon bowled into him from the side, knocking him to the ground where he was crushed scant milliseconds later beneath his partner's massive weight. Takato let out a grunt as air escaped his lungs.

"Gaaah! Guilmonnn!" he wheezed, gasping for much needed air. "G-Get off me! You're…you're too heavy!"

"Sorry, Takato," replied Guilmon, rolling off his partner. Takato pulled in sweet oxygen by the truckloads as he staggered to his feet.

"No peanut butter for a while boy," he wheezed, looking at his partner with a weary expression. Guilmon's batwing-like ears lilted in dismay.

"But Takatooo…"

"No buts, boy," Takato stated firmly, placing his hands on his hips in stark imitation of his mother whenever she was irritated. "You weigh a ton! I hate to say this…but you need to go on a diet."

"Ohhh… But Takato. The more I weigh, the more I'll be able to smash digimon during a fight."

As Guilmon tossed his arms up into the air for emphasis, Takato could only shake his head.

"That works in theory…if you happen to be a cannon ball. Last I checked, we're a Royal Knight. Sorry, Guilmon. But you need to stop being such a glutton and work out more. And furthermore…"

Takato stopped talking as he remembered that he was still training under Chou Sensei. Becoming embarrassed he turned towards his teacher and bowed respectfully, with Guilmon doing likewise.

"Sorry, sir! We…ah…_I—_became distracted!"

"It's all right," eased Chou Sensei. "As a matter of fact, I feel that practice should be canceled for today. Your heart doesn't seem to be as in it as you've shown in the past."

"Ah…that's not…" Takato bit down on his tongue and hung his head. "Okay…yeah, it is true. But only a little bit."

A small, invisible smile appeared beneath Chou Sensei's mustache and he gestured towards the small table sitting off to the side near a window.

"Would you like to talk about it over some ice cream?" the man asked, chuckling a little. Takato laughed with him.

"So long as we can keep it away from Guilmon."

"Hey!"

"Apologies, Guilmon," said Chou Sensei. "But your Tamer is correct. A healthy mind is important, but a healthy body is equally as important as well. I'm afraid you're going to have to forfeit the ice cream today."

"Ohhh…okay. Can I have some later? Please?"

"Only if your Tamer allows it."

Guilmon looked over at Takato with pleading eyes, and Takato hitched a sigh.

"…I think I'll end up being a terrible dad if I keep falling for those eyes. But only later Guilmon. I'm going to get you some low fat ice cream on the way home, and you can have that after dinner."

"Yay!" Guilmon again threw his arms up into the air as he cheered joyfully. Takato shook his head and went over to the table to sit down. Chou joined the teen, watching him carefully.

"I find it interesting in how your personality fits so much more closely with Guilmon than how Henry's is with his partner, Terriermon."

"Hm? Oh. You know, I've kind of wondered about that. Henry always used to say that our partners fill in our weak points. Terriermon's noisy and…well, very annoying while Henry is always calm and polite. You'd have to bribe Terriermon with food to get him to sit still for even two minutes. Guilmon…" Takato frowned. "…I sometimes wonder if he's so much like how I was as a kid that I had to grow up a little in order to protect him like he protected me. There's a lot about the real world that he didn't know about. Come to think of it, there's a lot that I didn't know about then too. Sometimes I'm amazed that we even made it this far without getting into more trouble than we did… Like maybe destroying a building by accident. There were a half dozen times where I could have lost Guilmon to Hypnos back when we weren't on friendly terms."

While Chou Sensei scooped ice cream out into two bowls, Guilmon nuzzled his partner in an attempt to assure him. Seeing this, Chou Sensei smiled softly.

"Perhaps you'll make a better father than you might think."

"Except that Takato is more like my Mommy since he made me," grinned Guilmon, causing Takato to palm his face in embarrassment.

"Jeez Guilmon…" Lowering his hand, Takato accepted the bowl of ice cream that Chou Sensei handed to him. "Well…I don't know if I'd make a good father or not…or why I'm even talking about that subject…" Takato rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment before continuing, "…but I don't know if it's the sort of thing that's really in my future."

"Oh?" asked Chou Sensei, swallowing some ice cream. "You say that as though it is certain."

Takato shifted uncomfortably. _How did we get on this topic again?_

"Well…" Takato checked the blinds of his link with Rika. He wasn't as good as she was at them, due in no small part to his attention span according to Rika, but they were up, so he knew he could expect privacy. "…Love really is a weird thing."

"Love takes many different forms," replied Chou Sensei calmly, indicating for Takato to continue.

"Well…maybe not so weird as the one that I—er…a friend of mine is in. You see, a while ago he got caught up in a rather complicated love triangle, and it…only got more complicated. It sort of settled down after a while, but nothing's changed since then. I…my friend, thought about it a lot, but he's not sure if anything will come out of it because he's so close to this other friend of his that he likes, and she might still feel a bit guilty about what happened in the past. He doesn't want to push it or anything…he's not in a hurry, but he's not sure how to approach it either since she once told him that she did like him and I'm really running off at the mouth aren't I?"

"You sure are," said Guilmon, looking up at him with wide eyes. "By the way Takato, who are we talking about? I thought all that stuff happened to you, and I would have remembered if it happened to someone else."

"Guilmonnn…" Takato again palmed his face, this time with both hands as he flushed with embarrassment. Chou Sensei dabbed his mustache with a napkin as he set down his bowl. "Man…why am I even talking about this kind of thing?"

"Sometimes it is important to discuss what weighs upon the heart," replied Chou Sensei. "When a problem weighs too heavily upon it, it can affect your life."

"Yeah, I guess. But…I don't know. I sound like I'm too focused on it. Like I'm desperate, and I'm not. I'm just…well, I guess I'm a little worried." He paused before continuing, deciding that there was nothing left to lose in hiding the truth anymore. "Rika said she liked me, and…and…I…"

"And for yourself?" asked Chou Sensei.

Takato took a deep breath as he collected himself.

"…I've really grown to like her. As more than just a friend."

For the first time that he could remember, the words fell out of his mouth without any hesitation, as though a decision had been made in his heart. He could still feel older worries and concerns, but for the time being, they were in the background, allowing him to vent the full breadth of his feelings. He sat there for a moment, letting the silence continue speaking for him while he questioned himself. Was this really what he wanted? After all this time of questioning, half-questioning, and being hesitant to do or say anything that would hurt people he cared about?

_If I move forward…there's no going back…_

_ "Takato?"_

Rika's voice echoed through his mind in a soft whisper, and Takato shot up in surprise, his knees banging into the table. Giving a cry of surprise, Takato nearly collapsed back down to the ground as a dull pain flared through his legs from the impact.

_Wha…? Rika? When did you…?_

It was too late. Her voice was gone. Takato could have kicked himself for a dope right then and there. He had gotten distracted, and as a result, his blinds had gone down, broadcasting his thoughts and feelings, and no doubt his words as well all the way to the one person he called his closest friend next to his partner.

"Awww…_nuts!"_ he exclaimed as he fought to pull himself together. Guilmon looked at Takato, startled by the teenager's actions. Chou Sensei raised an eyebrow at him.

"Most curious. Most people your age would be a little more…direct in their word usage."

"Old habit. Old habit." Takato staggered to his feet, wobbling a little as his legs were still rather stunned from their meeting with the table. "Um…" Takato clapped his hands together and bowed respectfully to his teacher; nearly collapsing again as he did so. "I'm Sorry. But I've really got to go right now. I…ah…I've got to go take care of something important."

"Of course," nodded Chou Sensei. "Go in peace. I hope things work out well for you."

Takato smiled at his teacher and spun around, nearly tripping over Guilmon as he did so, and together the two partners raced towards the exit, Takato taking a moment to quickly grab his things before finally leaving all together. Chou Sensei watched him go for a moment before turning his attention to Takato's ice cream bowl. A sizeable portion remained, melting in the day's sun.

_Good luck, Takato,_ the man thought, smiling fondly at memories from his youth.

* * *

* * *

"How goes the battle?" asked Kuroda, stepping into the main control room. Tally turned towards him with a sour look on his face. Kuroda raised an eyebrow. "C'mon now. Don't give me that look. Here, I brought you a little something to help reinforce us." He hefted the arm holding Tally's 'Hogmon cup', and the woman raised an eyebrow at him. Clicking a button, her platform descended towards him so that they were more on eyelevel. Taking the cup, Tally gratefully took a sip.

"You know my tastes too well," she said, basking in the warmth of her drink.

"We've been working together for three years. I'd like to think that I learned something about you besides your favorite color and your blood type."

"…That last sounds a little morbid."

Kuroda shrugged. "I'm me. What do you expect? If you're disturbed, I'll treat you to dinner later to help you forget about it. Anyway, this ought to freshen up our minds a little bit until then. Now lessee…" Reaching over, Kuroda tapped a button on Tally's control panel, prompting her to give him a hard look that warned him to steer clear of her turf. Chuckling, Kuroda took another sip from his mug and pressed another button, this time earning him a stuck out tongue.

"Cute Tally…"

"Did you forget that this is supposed to be _my_ part of the job? If you do it, then what am I left with?"

"Being the token bridge bunny?"

"And what the heck is_ that _supposed to mean? And what do you mean by _token?"_

"I get the feeling that I'm heading for dangerous territory," Kuroda muttered into his cup. "Anyway, I don't suppose you could punch up the charts of the phenomenon? I would like to take another look at it."

Grumbling to herself, Tally punched in the commands to her control panel and called up the latest scans of the digital world.

"All right. Here we go. The phenomenon on the surface level has expanded roughly by 0.01 percent since we last looked at it. The portal has _not_ expanded to accommodate it."

"So we're still looking at data being deposited, which is good. We can expect our systems to have some degree of removal of the digital world's rubbish. But it's not going to be happening fast enough to help us. Before too long we'll end up being stuck and unable to use the majority of our systems, so we've got to purge it. I think the best way to do it is to use something that can act as a receiver."

Kuroda thumbed his chin as he looked over the image. "Tally…one of the Tamers' reports indicated that there was a structure that resembled satellite dish architecture."

"Right. That was left over human data that made its way into the digital world. Urocyomon confirmed it during his travel through that sector."

"Is there any way we can reorganize that data to suit our needs?"

"It's…possible, but we would need to analyze the area thoroughly and come up with a program to defrag it. It's pretty badly corroded and mostly a part of the landscape now. The structures only resemble satellite dishes superficially now. It'd take time to reassemble the data, and I don't think we even have the time for that."

"Hmmm…well, that's a project for another time I guess, unless we pull in the Monster Makers since they're always looking to work on some new project involving the digital world." Kuroda frowned. "Too bad we don't have all of them handy anymore…" Taking another sip, Kuroda thought for a moment. "Well, I'll see about pulling them in anyway. They're already working to keep the servers clear, so this'll just be an extension of that. Now…"

A beeping sound emanated from Tally's console and she typed in a few commands.

"We're picking up something emerging from the phenomenon," she said. "Calling it up now."

The screens lining the wall lit up, and the phenomenon located in the digital world, represented by a hazy, whirlpool-like blue pixels appeared. Next to it stood a blue dot and two red dots directly next to it.

"Can you get a Tracer there to get a visual?"

"Already working. Tracer launched. We should be expecting visual confirmation in 3-2-1…"

The screen shifted and the digital world appeared before their eyes. Computer chips and geometric shapes lined the sky above the desert. The blue pixels were gone, but in its place was a dark discoloration that Kuroda could definitely call a whirlpool surrounded by a fiery ring of energy that was the Gateway. Darkness seeped past the ring, sinking into the landscape surrounding it. Tally typed in a few more commands and the visual zoomed in onto one specific location. Kneeling just outside the ring of fire was a figure wearing a long brown cloak, setting down a human with reddish-brown hair next to a large, orange colored, dinosaur-like digimon with a stubby tail and what looked to be red training bracers.

"Hello," said Kuroda, approaching the screens to get a better look. "It seems that we have company."

"I wonder if that's the human Tamer that Urocyomon and the others mentioned earlier," said Tally.

"It's possible," nodded Kuroda. "But who is that with them?"

Having set down his charge, the cloaked figure stood up and looked up towards the sky. His face was hidden, but Kuroda could tell that it was definitely male. Kuroda frowned.

"Can you increase visualization?"

"I'm sorry, but this is as far as it goes."

As they watched, the figure's cloak turned blue and a black tail emerged from behind it. Raising a hand that was rapidly becoming wrapped by tendrils of shadow, a crimson sphere materialized in the figure's palm before rocketing up towards them. Kuroda jumped back reflexively as the sphere impacted the Tracer, cutting off all visual. Kuroda blinked in surprise before looking down at himself.

"Shit. I spilled coffee on my shirt."

"Uh…I think that's the _least_ of our worries…"

"Touché Tally. Touché. We'd better let Yamaki know about this little development."

* * *

The darkness retreated into the figure's cloak as it returned to a more brownish color.

_"Well done,"_ crowed a voice from the darkness behind the wall of fire. _"Not that you weren't noticed now."_

"Sorry. I just…had to take care of these two."

_"Your concern for the _human_ and his pathetic pet is sickening as always."_

The figure shrugged. "I can't change who I am anymore than you can."

The shadow of a shapely, feminine figure materialized behind the wall of fire. _"So you keep telling me,"_ she chuckled._ "But we both know better, don't we?"_

"So you keep telling me," replied the cloaked figure, a small, strained smile growing on his face. "This goes around in circles a lot you know."

_"Get in here," _replied the voice in a stern tone. _"The Master is expecting your return, and he does not take too kindly to your being late no matter _how_ patient he is."_

"Will do," replied the cloaked figure. Pausing just a moment to look up at the digital representation of the Earth longingly, he stepped onto a small pool of darkness that seeped past the wall of fire and disappeared.

* * *

A/N: Oooh…the cloaked figure returns, with yet even more hints as to who he is. Kudos points will be awarded to those who get closer to figuring out his identity. :P

I had a bit of fun writing this chapter, thanks in part to Kuroda but also thanks to Takato being his usual, bumbling self as he finally admits to having feelings for Rika, only to spaz out when he hears Rika's voice in his head. Yeah…all in a day's work for Takato. I think I remember the reason why I always liked this pairing, as it tended to be at its best when they wound up in horribly embarrassing moments that weren't too terribly compromising, like the infamous shirt incident in the tunnel or when he sent a message to Rika's family pretending to be her and throwing in the girly heart for good measure. Poor Takato. He just can't help putting his foot in his mouth no matter what he does.

'Till next chapter then.

-Crazyeight

* * *

9


	23. Blossoming

A/N: This chapter is dedicated to Shadeslayer35 for being the 100th reviewer for this story.

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.

Revival

Chapter: 23/ Blossoming

Two pink armored Royal Knights touched down on the ground and knelt onto one knee respectfully towards the figure before them. These two knights were twin in everything save for one, who had claw scratches on his helm, given to him in a recent battle.

"Mistress Norn," spoke the one without the scars. "We have returned."

The figure stepped forward, revealing a small, human girl. "Rise," she said to them, spreading her hands so that her palms faced the two knights, "and speak your minds."

The two knights rose to their feet, though they kept their faces pointed downwards, not deigning to meet Norn's eyes.

"Although we would normally never question your orders," the unscarred knight, RhodoKnightmon resumed, "I must admit to being curious about why we were ordered away from the area we were ordered to protect. That place…it's a well for the Dark Area that has been collecting there for some time now. Your orders were to ensure that no one, human or digimon were to enter—or live—in that area until it was made secure again. After all, our forces have been dwindling of late, and without the Sovereigns or our comrades to support us, anything that enters the infected area runs the risk of causing a rupture."

"Those humans have already done so," growled RhodoKnightmon's scarred twin, LoadKnightmon. "The Dark Area is spilling into the surface level of the digital world. This goes against _everything_ that we of the Knighthood, and indeed the Royal Knights, were created to guard against."

"My apologies," said Norn, frowning at her two attendants. "But humans…we should take great care to not harm or involve them in our affairs."

"They are already involved," said RhodoKnightmon. LoadKnightmon looked over at her fellow knight in horror, but Norn merely shook her head.

"All the same, your actions against them were excessive. Should you face them again in the future, the humans are to not be harmed in the matter that you have. Is that clear?"

"Yes…mistress," RhodoKnightmon replied while LoadKnightmon nodded.

"Good." Striding over towards RhodoKnightmon, she raised a hand towards his scratched helm. The knight jerked away reflexively, causing Norn to frown. "I merely wish to heal you."

"My apologies, mistress. It's just…" RhodoKnightmon's hand caressed his injury. "…I do not wish to be healed of this wound. I desire to remember it as a lesson for my…failure concerning your orders about the humans."

Norn's frown deepened, but she nodded reluctantly. "Very well. Return to your duties."

With that, the two knights turned and vanished from view, leaving Norn alone to her thoughts. Taking a deep breath, she sighed heavily and closed her eyes.

_Why did I lie to them?_ she thought to herself._ My orders…are contradictory. I did tell them that no matter who they were, if anyone entered the infected area then they were to expunge the intruders using whatever means necessary. The infected land is not to be disturbed. So…why did I call them back?_

In her mind's eye she recalled her sight of the Legendary Tamer, and for a brief instant a different, yet similar face with lighter hair replaced him. The colors were different, but the boy's eyes held the same focus as Ryo Akiyama's. Always focused on a mission or goal, determined to never lose no matter what the situation.

_His Mega form,_ thought Norn, recalling Justimon's appearance. _It reminded me a little of Shou…when he was carried the title 'Knight'. _The corner's of Norn's eyes glistened as the memories of her past floated through her mind. _Shou…_

"Thinking about the good old days?" chided a voice from in front of her. Her eyes snapping open, Norn gave a small, surprised yelp as she saw Prometheus standing in front of her, arms folded over his chest and a small, comforting smile on his face.

"P-Prometheus…" stammered Norn as the pulse of her digital core slowed down. "You startled me."

"Sorry. Just thought I'd check in on you. How are things?"

Norn fidgeted as she looked away from him. "…Complex."

"Oh? Do tell."

A trickle of electricity danced the length of Norn's body, and involuntarily her lips began to move.

"It's…the Tamers. Specifically Ryo. He awoke memories in me."

"So I gathered," said Prometheus in a bored tone. "I thought it would be something else though. It's not that I don't find this interesting—believe me, feelings of affection from a complex computer program, the oldest in existence, towards a human is certainly _beyond_ interesting—but it shouldn't matter to you right now. Not with the current situation at hand."

Norn bit her lip. "I know. But I can't help myself. I can't help the way that I feel."

"Hmmm…" Prometheus looked up towards the digital sky. Golden lines of code crisscrossed its length. "You've done wonders since the worlds merged together," he said after a moment. "Since the incident with Omnimon that is. Since you've met Shou you've been doing a lot more."

"Until my last battle against a human world I didn't have reason to consider such things." Norn furrowed her brow at Prometheus, wondering why he was pursuing this topic. "I've been experimenting a little, but given the delicate nature of the digital world, I don't dabble much."

"Yes. We've seen evidence of that, haven't we. Thank the Sovereigns it wasn't anything you caused directly, though I daresay that Omnimon more or less should be held responsible for that. His _All Delete_ attack caused a lot of chaos didn't it?"

"Yes. It did."

"Barbamon was just the first sign of that. Demon Lords… You can always count on them to take advantage of a situation gone sour. Oh well." Prometheus shrugged. "What's done is done anyway. We can only work with the present. What's going on with the Dark Area? I hear some rumors that it's spreading slowly since Hypnos interfered with it."

"The Knighthood will no doubt confirm it," said Norn. Prometheus nodded.

"I'm sure they will. However, I would like to confirm that for myself."

"B-But Prometheus! It's too risky! GranDracmon…"

"…Will no doubt be watching, yes. Maelstrom pretty much told me that can be expected." Prometheus waved her off. "I say we let him. He'll send an agent. Specifically _that_ agent since he knows the most about the human world directly connected to the Southern Quadrant…even if he's a little out of date on current events, he'll still be able blend in."

"He'll expose you."

"Not if he's too busy being distracted by everything else and vice versa."

"GranDracmon will intervene…"

"I say we let him. Then we can finally bring him into the game."

Norn's eyes widened in shock.

"You…that _wasn't_ part of the plan! If he comes here _everything_ could be ruined! You know that! That's why you explicitly wanted us to avoid any and all contact with the Dark Area _and_ clear out the infected sector of all life!"

"I've been giving it some thought while I was coming here." Prometheus picked at his teeth thoughtfully. "I think it's worth the risk."

Norn set her teeth on edge. "The humans have a story about a man named Icarus. He flew to close to the sun on wings of wax and he plummeted to the Earth. You're overstepping yourself if you're going to try and trap GranDracmon."

Prometheus paused in the picking of his teeth and glanced at Norn. "You're right. He'll be expecting it. But…what better time are we going to get? He's a mistake that everyone has been waiting to clean up for years. The Dark Area won't hold him forever, and with the latest breach…well…" Prometheus shook his head and sighed. "About your order to the Knighthood in regards to harming humans…"

"Yes?"

"Lift it."

Norn blinked. "What?"

"I said, 'lift it'. I know you're squeamish about it, but we're not pulling our punches against them. It's all important to how things go…how the plan goes. I want the Tamers to react when their lives are in danger, and not just their partners. And Norn? Don't make me make it an order."

Electricity sparked at the tip of Norn's hand and she pulled it tightly into a fist. She scowled at Prometheus.

"Yes…_sir."_

"Good girl. Gotta go. The Well-Spring of the Dark Area awaits, and I don't want to be late for my meeting. Anyway, don't forget to get the next stage of the operation under way, okay? Bye-bye."

Flashing Norn a wild grin, Prometheus disappeared in a flurry of wind, leaving Norn to glare angrily at the empty landscape around her.

* * *

Henry, Noriko, Lumemon, and Terriermon walked down the streets of Shinjuku, Suzie Wong striding between them. The young girl marched with her hands behind her head and a thoughtful expression on her face while Lopmon lay on her hair, a calm, peaceful expression on her face.

_"She's probably relieved that Suzie isn't crushing her like usual,"_ Henry remembered Terriermon saying as he watched his younger sister. Henry frowned, his mind already following up the memory with his usual scolding of his partner, but he quickly pushed it away, focusing solely on Suzie.

Henry sighed, earning him a glance from Noriko, Lumemon, and a pout from Suzie.

"Don't say it," said Suzie in a warning tone.

"Say what?" asked Terriermon before his partner could even say anything. "All Henry did was sigh and complain mentally."

"Terriermon…"

"What? C'mon, Henry! Even _Suzie_ knows what you're thinking about. It doesn't take a genius to guess what's on your mind."

"Terriermon," said Suzie, folding her arms over her chest. "Can we _not_ talk about this? I don't want to even _think_ about what happened back at school."

"She's had a bad day, Terriermon," said Noriko, smiling softly. "Cut her some slack, would ya?"

"I'm not teasing her you know," grumbled Terriermon. "Well, at least that Atsuo kid whose been bugging you for so long got kicked out of your classroom. You won't have to deal with him anymore, right?"

"Mmm…" Suzie's eyes narrowed darkly while Noriko cast a furtive glance at Henry. The boy shook his head. Terriermon raised an eyebrow at the motion.

"What? Don't tell me that he'll still…"

"Terriermon…" Henry placed a hand on Suzie's shoulder. "Suzie. I think I should introduce you to my teacher. Dad and I have helped teach you some things about defending yourself ever since you first told us about your problem with that kid, but it would be better if someone was able to give you more time." Henry paused and frowned at himself. "I mean…"

"Way to go Henry," said Terriermon, giving the boy a meaningful look. "Are you saying that Suzie's not worth your time?"

_"Terriermon!"_

"I know what you mean, Henry," said Suzie softly. "And Terriermon, don't make fun of Henry like that. He's a good big brother…even if he doesn't like it when I fight in battles."

"He'll at least be able to sleep now," said Terriermon, one ear lifting lazily into the air. "Yamaki's pretty much grounded you from fighting Wild Digimon anyway."

Suzie's face set itself into a hard expression and Henry and Noriko exchanged looks. It was no secret that Suzie disliked being shelved off to the sidelines like this. Even though Lopmon had been given a clean bill of health, concern about Suzie's side of the partnership made the girl feel like her life was being interfered with far more than it should have been.

_It probably doesn't help that I've been trying to keep her out of fighting,_ thought Henry._ Even though she's almost the same age as when I first started, I still don't like the idea of her getting involved in this stuff. Looking at Suzie now, it makes it even more easy to see what Mom and Dad were going through every time we charged into battle or were trapped in the digital world. Is it really worth it? Making our family that concerned about our wellbeing?_

Henry knew that he had been down that road enough times to know the answer to the question. Of course it was worth it. How many times had the city—the _world—_come close to being destroyed from invasions from the digital world? Far too many that much was certain, and the damage would have been far worse had he and his friends not stood up to fight.

_Still… Suzie was really too young when she became a Tamer…_

Back in the boy's mind though, an old conversation that he once had with Terriermon gnawed at him.

_ "How young is too young, Henry? You became a Tamer when you were eleven! You got your game at Christmas, and bam! I came out of your computer a couple days later. Sure, Suzie's only a real little kid now, and even _I _think she should wait a bit, but when she gets a little older things are going to have to change. Lopmon already has a head start as far as digivolving goes, so I don't think you can keep her out of mixing it up with some bad cases until she graduates from High School."_

_ I know that Terriermon,_ thought Henry to the memory. _But that doesn't mean it's going to be easy._

"Henry? Hey. Henry!"

"Hm?" Henry blinked in surprise as Suzie stood on her tiptoes and waved a hand in his face. "W-Wha…?"

"It's about time, Henry," snickered Terriermon from his spot on Henry's shoulder. "While you were zoned out, she was trying to get your attention for the past twenty seconds."

"Not even close," said Lumemon from next to Noriko. Terriermon glowered at the angelic digimon.

"So what? I like to exaggerate. Exaggerating is an art style for me!"

"So is momentai," smiled Noriko. "Now how about you be quiet for a moment and let Henry and Suzie talk."

"Don't worry," said Suzie, wagging a finger at the two of them. "I'm not going to talk for very long. I just wanted to say that I'm going to go on ahead…maybe chill out at the park for a minute or two to clear my head, and then go home."

"Suzie…" began Henry, only to be interrupted by the girl in question.

"Henryyy…" the girl drew out his name like a teacher about to explain something to a slow student, all the while still wagging a finger at him. "What part of 'my going on ahead' don't you understand? You think I haven't noticed how you haven't had much time for anything except homework and taming?"

"He did sort of mention it earlier," muttered Terriermon, but no one paid him the slightest amount of attention. Placing one hand on her hip dramatically, Suzie stabbed a finger at Henry. "You!" Suzie turned her finger over towards Noriko, who blinked in surprise at suddenly being included. "And you! Go out on a date! Now!"

The girl's words were said with such force so as to leave no room for argument. All the same however, the two older teens both looked at Suzie in confusion. Terriermon just chuckled.

"Suzie. For once I think I like your style…"

"Um…Suzie…" began Henry, ignoring his partner's words. "What are you…?"

"No. No more talking. Go to a fancy restaurant. Go to the park. Go to a movie. Hold hands. I don't care. You," Suzie again stabbed a finger at Henry and then at Noriko in rapid succession, "and you are going to stop dancing around each other and get a move on with your relationship."

"Suzie…" Noriko raised her hands at the girl in a placating gesture. "Henry and I…we're just friends."

"And it's an attitude like that that makes sure that's _all_ you're going to be," huffed Suzie, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Shouldn't you be at the phase where 'boys are ewww' to you?" asked Terriermon. "Not that I'm complaining of course. We've all had to sit on listening to these two talk and blush around each other for the past three years. At least Takato and Rika are funny with their mind talk thing since I can mess around with them and get hilarious results. Kind of like what happened when I pointed out that Rika was getting a bit big on top…"

"Terriermon…" Reaching up, Henry rapped his partner on the side of his head, all the while fighting down the heat that pervaded his face.

"What? I think it's about time you two did more than blush around each other! Sheesh! Talk about lame…"

"My point exactly. So, I'm going to leave you guys here to decide for yourselves whether you want to have a fun night out away from all your talk about the world probably blowing up, my problems, and whether or not which of you will get into a good university or at least into high school, or do all that anyway. Either way, I don't want to be around for that. So…" spinning like a ballerina Suzie took off at a run, waving a hand towards the group. "Make up your minds already!"

"Ah! Suzie!"

"Let her go, Henry," sighed Terriermon, clambering up onto Henry's head. "You know she's a big girl now. She just needs to be alone right now."

"Terriermon… She's my sister! I can't just leave her alone you know."

"Growing up is tough, Henry. I'm not saying you should leave her alone…just give her some space. Sometimes it's better to let the kettle cool down a little before touching it."

Henry frowned. "That's…not a very good analogy."

"It's common sense, Henry, which you sometimes lack. Now come on! Why don't you treat Noriko to some ice cream or a movie? Because I'm sure she's just dying to watch this new movie that just came out involving trucks that turn into robots…"

Henry rolled his eyes while Noriko giggled. "Terriermon…"

"Momentai, Henry," said Noriko, taking his hand into her own and giving it a soft squeeze. "Momentai. Just for a little while anyway."

* * *

"Well?" asked Suzie as she slowed to a walk. "What are they doing now?"

Lopmon squinted as she looked over her shoulder. "It looks like they're holding hands. Noriko was the one who initiated it."

"It's about time," Suzie giggled. "I was starting to give up on thinking she would show some initiative. She's always so shy around my brother. Sometimes I think she thinks she's a bother or something. Sometimes people can be so weird."

"I…see," said Lopmon carefully, adjusting herself on the girl's head. "So, are we going to go home now?"

"Not yet." Suzie shook her head. "I meant what I said when I told them I needed to clear my head. I need to calm down. This day has been…" Suzie took a deep breath and sighed heavily. "…not good."

Lopmon nodded in agreement. "I'm sorry that you had such a terrible day…"

"Lopmon. Listen to me. It's not your fault that Atsuo is such a jerk. No. Let me correct that: it's not your fault he's such an _ass!"_

"Suzie!" gasped Lopmon. Suzie laughed lightly.

"Like no one's used that word before…"

"But Suzie…it's not…it's not proper!"

"You and I have been partners for all this time and you still haven't broken free of that formal way of speaking you always do." A small smile drew across Suzie's face. "But that's one of the things that I appreciate about you, you know. You're a solid place for me. I can count on you being constant, even if I'm not all the time."

"Suzie…"

"Lopmon. I've got to get stronger as a Tamer. Today, we almost lost to a Champion, and what's worse, he did something to you that affected me too." Suzie pulled one hand into a tight fist. "Because of that, I could have forced you to do something bad. Something that we've seen only Takato do up until now. I can't ever let myself lose control and dark digivolve you. But…" Suzie frowned. "…How do I do that?"

As though her concerns had summoned their source, Takato and Guilmon came bursting out of a side street and went racing towards the direction of the park. Suzie and Lopmon watched the teen and his partner go with startled looks on their faces.

"Wow…" said Suzie after a moment. "Um…what's that western saying? 'Speak of the Devil?'"

"Suzie!"

"What am I? Terriermon now? Sheesh." Reaching up, Suzie adjusted Lopmon. "Hang tight. I'm going after him."

With that, the young girl burst into a sprint, intent on chasing the gogglehead down.

* * *

* * *

_Gotta go! Gotta go! Gotta go!_ The words hammered themselves into Takato's mind like a jackhammer as panic all but ruled his mind. Casting his mind out he worked to double check to see if he was going in the right direction. Once he was sure that he was he redoubled his efforts, pounding his feet upon the pavement as he strove to reach his destination as quickly as possible.

"Takatooo…" complained Guilmon as he strained to match his partner's pace. "Slow down!"

Takato drove to an abrupt halt as he reached an intersection. He panted, looking both ways and waited for the light to change. All the while his legs continued to churn beneath him, as though he were afraid that if he stopped moving them for even a second he wouldn't be able to get going again.

"Sorry, Guilmon! But I've got to get to the park and fast! Rika's there and…and I think she might have overheard what we were talking about with Chou Sensei! I've got to set her straight!"

"Hah?" Guilmon tilted his head to one side in confusion. "Set her straight?"

"Yeah. As in try and tell her that what she heard wasn't what she heard so that she doesn't explode."

"But…Takato? I thought you wanted Rika to be your girlfriend."

"I _do!"_ Takato blushed as he realized that there were people standing around him, all eyes on him. The crosswalk light changed, signaling that it was now safe to cross and he quickly dashed across the street, Guilmon following closely behind.

"Then why do you need to set her straight, Takato?" asked Guilmon as he kept abreast of his partner.

"Because…because… Aaagh!" Takato ran his hands through his hair at a furious pace. "I'm in panic mode right now, Guilmon! I'm _really_ not thinking straight!"

"Then maybe you need to straighten yourself out first."

A firework went off in Takato's head. _I _really _should have thought of that first…_

"Yeah, maybe…"

"So why aren't we slowing down to think things through?"

"Because…um…Guilmon. Let's just say that I want to see Rika as quickly as I can and talk to her. She might not like what I said and I want to make sure that she doesn't get too angry about it."

"But can't you guys talk up here?" Guilmon pointed one claw up at his head to illustrate.

"She's not in a talkative mood right now," Takato replied. "All I can get is a general feeling of where she is. Man…when she really doesn't want me to know what's on her mind, she _really _doesn't want me to know…"

* * *

_What a Gogglehead…_

Rika Nonaka absently shuffled her deck as she sat on the steps leading to Guilmon's old home—the 'Hideout' as it had been affectionately termed. Rika couldn't remember the last time she had been there. Since Guilmon had ceased using it as a home and no portal had manifested there since the day they got their digimon back it had become less and less of a meeting place for the group. They still visited it from time to time, mainly because Guilmon still liked it and saw it as home away from home and was well-hidden from prying eyes, but for the most part with such a large group of digimon and human partners as they had now, it wasn't as feasible as it once had been. To this day however, it remained a meeting place for the Tamers in events that counted as emergencies or whenever they felt the need to just hang out somewhere.

Unfortunately for Rika, her reason for being there counted more as an emergency than just a place to 'hang out'.

She had long ago given up on trying contacting the gogglehead. Since she made contact with him while he was with their teacher, he had flown into a panic, making it utterly impossible for her to reach him in any way beyond a general sense of where he was, and of course his emotional weather, which at this point consisted of perpetual panic.

_Not like it's something that shouldn't be expected,_ she sighed to herself as she continued shuffling her deck. _This _is_ Takato the Gogglehead after all. The poor kid has conniption fits whenever he loses a sock. At this stage, it's just better to wait somewhere and let him find me. Provided he doesn't get lost in the process… which _wouldn't_ surprise me since those two can do just about anything they put their minds to._ Rika paused. _Or lose their minds to,_ she amended.

"Rika?" came the voice of Renamon, materializing on the roof of Guilmon's old home. "Takato has now entered the park. He should be here shortly."

"About time," said Rika in an amused tone. "How was he doing when you found him? All I'm getting is a lot of agitation."

"Apparently he's under the impression that you're going to hurt him."

"I may just very well do that for cutting me off with that hurricane brain of his," grumbled Rika. "He hasn't been like this since my fourteenth birthday."

A small smile appeared on Renamon's muzzle. "Well you _did_ tell him what you'd do if you were thrown another surprise party, which was being planned. He was supposed to keep it a secret, which is hard for him to do around you, link or no link."

"Hmmph. Maybe this'll teach him to not let his brain overwhelm the link like this." Rika pocketed her cards and stood up, dusting off her jeans as she did so. "He's almost here."

"I'll give the two of you some privacy," smiled Renamon, fading out of view. Rika sighed mentally as she waited for Takato to make his grand entrance. Within short order, the boy turned onto the stairs with Guilmon following directly behind. She crossed her arms beneath her breasts, waiting for him to make his laborious climb up the stairs towards her, tapping one finger on an arm patiently.

_Jeez… What'd he do? Run all the way here? He looks like he's about ready to pass out on his feet!_

"R-Rika!" Takato gasped, coming to a halt in front of her. He offered her a goofy grin that did nothing to hide the tempest that clouded their normal communication line. "I'm so glad I was able to find you…"

"Glad to see that you didn't lose your way getting here," nodded Rika. "Now you mind telling me wh…"

Takato clapped his hands in front of him and bowed deeply, interrupting her.

"Rika! I just wanted you to know that whatever you heard from my talk with Chou Sensei…it's…it's not what you think it is! I know this is something that we've talked about before and how it's always been something that you were worried about…well…I've been worried about it too. I mean, I've always been afraid that I'd end up losing you as a friend and I value your friendship too much to let that happen…"

Rika blinked, completely taken aback by the sudden outpour of words tumbling out of the boy's mouth. "Takato…" she began, but he continued to ramble onwards with all the momentum of an avalanche.

"…And I know that I shouldn't have been talking about it with someone else, even if it was Chou Sensei. I just had a few things that I needed to get off my chest. I can't go to Henry because of Terriermon, and Jeri… Well…anyway! I just wanted you to know, before you say anything, that I really, _really_—_didn't—_mean for you to be hurt by what I said and that I would never in a million years…no, _two _million…no…longer…hurt y—!"

_If he doesn't stop babbling soon I'm going to end up hurting him…_

Deciding that it would be a good idea to nip that thought in the bud before it manifested as reality, Rika grabbed Takato by the face and forced him down so that they were more on eye level. Her violet eyes penetrated his crimson ones, and when she spoke, her voice drove over his with all the force of a hammer.

"Takato! Would you _please_ stop talking and tell me what the heck you're babbling about? You're not making any sense at all!"

"Um…" Guilmon raised a claw questioningly. "If Takato can't talk, then can I say it instead?"

"I'm tempted," said Rika, releasing her grasp on Takato's face. "But I want to hear it straight from the horse's mouth. Spill it, Gogglehead. What's got you so worked up that you can barely form coherent sentences?"

"Uh…huh?" Takato blinked in surprise as he rubbed one hand against his cheek where Rika had held him. "You mean…you didn't hear what Chou Sensei and I were talking about?"

Rika gave him an annoyed look. "I'm asking you aren't I? _What._ Were you two talking about that's got you so riled up?"

Takato shook his head deliriously. There was something fundamentally wrong here.

"B-But…the timing…"

_"What_ timing? Takato…I'm just three seconds away from reshaping the landscape of your head if you don't start making sense!" Rika pushed her face towards him as she placed her fists on her hips. _Seriously, does this kid even_ know _how frustrating it is when he gets all worked up and doesn't turn off his blinds? Especially when it disrupts communication?_

Even though Takato's mind was presently a whirlpool of chaos, Rika knew that there was some measure of order to that chaos as it had the tendency of breaking down his defenses, making him more liable to do things that he otherwise wouldn't do, whether he meant to do it or not, or was aware of it or not. As a result, it wasn't that much of a surprise to her when the next words tumbling out of his mouth was what was on his mind. However, while she expected them to be something highly embarrassing, what he said was not at all what she expected to hear from his mouth.

"I was talking to Chou Sensei about how I felt about you," Takato said, still looking bewildered. "You didn't hear it?"

For what felt like an eternity, Rika's mind went white. All at once she was transported to that turbulent past when her feelings for the boy first awoke, and how she had struggled to sort them out. Since then, she had come to more or less accept them in her life, and the bond that she shared with him, but the degree of it often left her worrying. Worrying and wondering where things would go for them. It seemed a question that would never be answered, but now, suddenly, here it was, being dropped in her lap, just like that and before she even knew, it was coming.

_Typical…_ she thought as clarity began to return to her.

"You're…feelings," Rika said flatly, not batting an eye. Takato nodded almost mechanically, stuck in stunned surprise.

"Right," Rika continued. She felt a nervous flutter in her chest. _We…haven't talked about this in…a long time. I have to admit…I don't know if I'm ready for this. What did he say that he thinks I'd be so angry about? Damn it! Takato, you just _had _to lose control at that moment, didn't you?_

"Rika?" Takato was starting to calm down, and he tilted his head to one side as he scrutinized her curiously. "Are you all right? You're not mad…are you?"

Rika found herself glancing away, frowning. She resisted the urge to fidget, and then promptly scolded herself. She _never_ fidgeted.

"I'm fine," she said. "It's just…it was just a lot to take in, you know?" Rika allowed herself a small chuckle. "It's quite the surprise."

Rika found herself aghast at what she was doing. For that matter what _was_ she doing? Playing Takato along while trying to get him to admit whatever it was he had said—what he admitted?

_If he even admitted to anything at all. He's probably still hung up on Jeri after all these years. She was his first love after all, and that kind of thing doesn't just up and leave a person you know…_

Still…she had to ask herself, what did she feel about the situation? She hung back for years, out of respect for Jeri, not wanting to encourage Takato to do, say, or develop anything towards her, but now… A rather terrifying thought made itself known to her. What if Takato had developed feelings for _her_ now? Rika pulled her hands into tight fists and slowly lowered them to her sides. She felt a pang of uncertainty. She didn't want to hurt Jeri…

…Yet at the same time, she knew that she would be happy if her wish came true.

_Jeri…you let him go for me. But…I don't even know if I deserve that. You don't know how many times I felt like I stole him from you. The last time I saw you, you tried to push him onto me again, and I…I didn't want to do that. But…_

Rika raised her eyes to meet Takato's. Crimson stared at violet once again as Rika swallowed carefully, and made a decision in her heart.

_…I shouldn't be a coward. Not after this much time has passed. Jeri…you let him go so I could be happy and I spent the past three years pretending that you didn't do that. You wanted us to make it work. For you…I'll do it. I guess the only way to swim…is to jump in and give it a try._

"Yeah…" Rika began again, regaining her composure. "I'm a little bit mad about it."

Takato blanched a little. "S-Sorry. I didn't mean…"

Rika felt her heart crack a little as the boy hung his head, looking as though he had just ruined something important. She felt a little sorry for fooling him in this manner, but she wanted to hear the words from his mouth.

Still, she had to admit, she was having just a little bit of fun watching him squirm. But just a little.

"So. What are you going to do about it?" she asked pointedly, folding her arms over her chest. "I mean, you have to take responsibility for it, right?"

Takato's eyes snapped up at that. Rika blushed a little. She might as well have told him that he had to marry her now.

"Um…y-yeah. You're right. Um…" Takato rubbed the back of his head as he wracked his brains for something—_anything—_that would sound like a good idea to make it up to her for his big mess up. "I…I'm not sure how. I…Rika. I know that I'm not the best person for this…and that we pretty much just fell into this. I've caused you a lot of trouble too, but…" Takato's eyes became firm just then and he looked at her square in the eye. "…But I promise. I _swear_ on my honor, no matter what, I'll do whatever I can to _never_ disappoint you and always be there for you whenever you need me."

Rika found herself blinking in surprise as a little heat rose to her face.

"Wait. Does that mean…? That what you said to Chou Sensei…?" Rika blinked again. The tempest in Takato's mind had calmed significantly, and she took a quick peek in his mind, rapidly replaying the memory that was most dominant on his mind at the moment. Her eyes widened as a result. "…You _told_ him that you _liked_ me?"

Now it was Takato's turn to blink in surprise. "Wait. You didn't know? You…you…"

Realizing how quickly the tide of the conversation was going, Rika did the first thing that she thought of to shut him down and claim victory.

She kissed him.

* * *

"Oh…" Suzie blinked while Lopmon stared on in amazement.

"…My," finished the dark furred rabbit. As one, the two nodded and Suzie took a step back.

"I think my questions can wait another day," she said, retreating from the scene. She glanced back at the pair of humans, both of whom were still locked in their embrace. She gave them a small smile before venturing off further into the park, her footfalls quickly falling into a playful skip as she did so.

* * *

Prometheus materialized out of thin air before the blazing wall of darkness. He cast a quick glance at Marcus and Agumon, who were still lying on the ground unconscious before bringing his full attention to the firewall before him.

"Well, well, well," he whistled. "Here I am."

* * *

A/N: I felt it was about time to get Takato and Rika's relationship jumpstarted. Took me long enough. I thought about it for a bit on how I wanted to go about the confirmation. The kiss part at the end is a little bit cliché (very I should think), but I'm something of a sucker for that sort of thing. The buildup I think is the more important part, as I wanted to steer clear from sappiness and, well, pretty much make it a Takato-ish resolution. Rika being blissfully unaware what Takato said, but knowing something was up, and the two of them just more or less fall into love. Rika was a bit mean, playing Takato for that, and I'm unsure how that goes as far as her personality goes. Feels a bit off honestly, even for her, but I rather enjoyed writing her thought process on the matter. How this affects them we'll see as the story develops.

Until the next chapter then.

-Crazyeight

* * *

11


	24. Closing Fog

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.

Revival

Chapter: 24/ Closing Fog

The cloaked figure stepped out into a mist of darkness. Unconsciously he shivered and pulled his cloak closer to his body. A low, feminine chuckle reached his ears from the mists.

"Cold?"

"This isn't exactly something I like you know."

A shadow materialized behind him, and a red claw touched the edge of his hood.

"Too bad you're no longer built for the land of light either. You could have stayed behind otherwise."

"You would have dragged me back."

"Of course." The voice chuckled and crimson eyes glowed in the darkness. "Monsters should stick together after all."

The cloaked figure sighed and shook his head, though a tired smile tugged at the corners of his lips. "Always nice to know that you care…LadyDevimon."

The red claw pulled away as its owner revealed itself. She was a pale skinned figure wrapped in the torn, black leather costume that was the trademark of her species. However, unlike her other sisters of the LadyDevimon line, this one was different in that her hair was not dead white, but instead a fearsome blood red that flowed down her back like a streaming river. The cloaked figure paused on the hair, grimacing slightly at it, knowing full well the reasons behind its color. As he stared, a disgusted expression marked LadyDevimon's face, clearly unhappy with his choice of words.

"GranDracmon owns you. _I_ own you. Our master merely let you out as a test. Had you betrayed him, there would be no escape for you, and no mercy." Raising her talons, the demoness licked at their tips hungrily. Data flowed from her tongue in shining sparks as her claws' razor edges cut at it. "Don't ever forget that."

The cloaked figure merely eyed LadyDevimon for a moment before turning and continuing onwards. Whether the Viral Ultimate was insulted by his lack of response she did not show, instead opting to fade into the dark mists, staying close to her charge, but always out of sight. The cloaked figure shuddered a little as the sensation of being watched by something unseen tickled at the back of his mind. It felt far too familiar to him.

_At least Renamon didn't make me feel like she was going to just attack clear out of the blue,_ the figure thought. _Well…at least not after the first couple of times._

He continued onwards for several minutes longer before coming to a stop at a stone bridge. The mists parted slightly, revealing a massive castle standing before him. It was truly an impressive design, surrounded by large walls and ramparts that stretched for as far as the eye could see. Shadows darkened every corner, and it was virtually impossible to see anything in the windows, but there were things in them, watching—_waiting—_for the taste of an intruder. The cloaked figure restrained himself from placing a hand on his shoulder. He knew all too well what sort of defenses the castle had.

He pressed onwards, flanked by LadyDevimon as she materialized behind him, watching him with cold, mocking eyes. She fell into step behind him with a graceful ease and they continued towards the main entranceway. The tall, thickly wooden doors creaked open as they approached, and the two disappeared into the shadows.

* * *

A shimmer materialized at the edge of the bridge, and with a shift in movement, Prometheus appeared. Leaning casually against one of the support pylons, he inspected the castle with a thoughtful scratch of his chin.

"Hmmm… Interesting. Inverted spatial warp and manipulation of exterior elemental codes for controlled geography." Prometheus frowned. "Pretty basic stuff. I'm guessing the _real_ threats are in the gates." He glanced up towards a window, and a violet line of code materialized around his eyes. A second later, he grinned. "GranDracmon, you really don't skim on the welcoming committee. I see that I'm going to have to take a more roundabout route."

Nodding his head to himself in agreement, Prometheus melted into the ground and disappeared.

* * *

Following her discovery of Takato and Rika's blossoming relationship, Suzie found herself wandering over to the playground of Shinjuku Park and sitting herself down on a swing, a thoughtful look on her face.

"You've been quiet," Lopmon on top of her head after several seconds of the girl gently pushing the swing with her foot.

"Just letting it sink in," smiled Suzie. "The quiet, I mean. Everyone's already figured that Takato and Rika would get close eventually, if they weren't by now." Suzie giggled. "Terriermon. What does he know about me? I like romance." Leaning forward, Suzie heaved a heavy sigh. "It's been quite a big day, hasn't it? How are you doing?"

"I'm fine," replied Lopmon, shifting her weight on Suzie's head, "as long as you are."

Suzie pouted. "That's not a real answer, Lopmon. What if I were to say that I'm not doing well? What if I had a stomach ache or something?"

Lopmon shifted uneasily.

"Lop…I just want to know how you're feeling. You were in a rough fight today. Dad says that you're okay, but…" Suzie frowned. "…Normally that'd be enough for me, but not this time. Please don't say things just to make me feel better. Because sometimes I feel that everyone in my family does that."

Lopmon took a deep breath.

"Suzie…I'm fine. Believe me. I'm glad to know that you're all right. But…" Lopmon hesitated, and Suzie noticed it.

"…But?"

"…I think we need to do something to relax you a little. I felt a little weird when we were fighting that Devidramon."

Suzie nodded. "I have to admit, I felt pretty angry. I really need to get a handle on that. I don't want to do to you what Takato did to Guilmon that one time." Pushing herself off the swing, Suzie punched her fists into the air. "We're partners! I have to take care of my end of things too!"

"At least Atsuo won't be in your class anymore."

Suzie sniffed. "That's something. I don't even want to think about him though. I think I'm going to have enough trouble from him later. Now, c'mon. Let's go do something. Do you want to catch a movie or eat out?"

"Um…"

"Just name it, Lopmon. I've got plenty of yen saved up." Suzie grinned and giggled mischievously. "Birthday money…Christmas…allowance…a whole year's worth! It's all ripe for the spending and I'm spending it all on you, Lopmon."

Lopmon looked down at her partner worryingly. "But Suzie… That's _your_ money…"

Placing her hands on her hips, Suzie stuck her nose in the air proudly. "My money is your money, Lopmon. That's what it means to be partners. Well…except in Guilmon and Terriermon's cases, but those two are bottomless pits anyway, and you can't trust Terriermon as far as you can throw him anyway. _So…_! Where to?"

Lopmon could see the grin that stretched from ear to ear on the girl's face, and after a moment of consideration, she nodded.

"Well…there _is_ a restaurant that I've always wanted to try…"

"Perfect!" Suzie pumped one fist into the air triumphantly. "Then let's go!"

Lopmon smiled. She opened her mouth to give her directions when her nose twitched. Frowning, she stood up on her tiny legs and looked around. Suzie raised an eyebrow curiously.

"Lopmon? Is everything okay up there?"

"I don't know. For a second there I thought I smelled…" Lopmon shook her head. "I can't really tell for sure. Suzie, can you use your digivice for a second?"

"Sure. What am I using it for?"

"Scan for digimon other than our friends."

Pulling out her D-Arc, Suzie called up the scanning function. A holographic circle materialized above her digivice's screen. It rotated wildly for a few seconds before receding.

"I'm not picking up anything. What's going on?"

"I could have sworn…" Lopmon sniffed the air and hopped down to the ground. "My nose isn't as good as Guilmon's, but it's good enough to tell when a digimon is around recently. The scent is weak though…"

"Then we should go find it!" Suzie exclaimed. "It might not be a bad digimon, but if it's found a way to get around our ability to pick it up with our digivice's then we should figure out how it's doing that, right?"

Lopmon nodded, but she felt troubled. "Maybe we should contact one of the others…"

Suzie shook her head. "No. If I do that, then I'm just going to get pushed to the side again."

"But…Suzie… You're not supposed to be doing this, remember? Mr. Yamaki doesn't want you doing anything Tamer related until we're absolutely sure that I'm fine from the Devidramon's attack."

"Well…we'll just have to be careful. Besides," Suzie indicated the direction off in the park where Guilmon's hut lay. "I don't want to interrupt Takato and Rika, and I'd rather not do the same with Henry and Noriko. They just _finally_ got together."

"We should still call someone…"

"Oh, Lopmon." Suzie rolled her eyes and picked her partner up, setting her on her shoulder. "Remember what I used to tell you when we first became partners? Sometimes you just have to say no!" Suzie adopted a devilish, Cheshire cat grin that did nothing to allay Lopmon's worries. If anything, it just made them worse.

However, before she could raise any objections, Suzie abruptly took off, charging towards the park.

"Wait! Suzie! I didn't even tell you which direction to go! Suzie!"

* * *

_What…is this?_ thought Bakumon as he watched the two Tamers curiously. The Digimon Queen and the boy—Takato if he recalled their conversation correctly—were mashing their faces together. What this entailed he did not know, but it was definitely strange from his perspective.

_What is he? An opponent? Is she trying to eat him?_ Bakumon tilted his head to one side. It sure didn't look like it, though Takato looked to be in a state of complete and utter shock, unable to move. Their talk certainly didn't sound like the sort of thing that preceded battles, so what precisely was going on here?

_He was apologizing… She was trying to make sense of whatever it was he was apologizing for… He said something about how he 'felt about her' and then…this happened._ Narrowing his eyes, he focused on the pair. Light flared around his body, and just like that images of strings appeared around the two Tamers. A multitude connected to them as well as to their partners, flaring fiercely with each passing second. Bakumon nodded as understanding began to dawn on him. He had seen some digimon do something similar, and he knew full well what lay behind those strings and why they were important.

Bakumon growled a little as he looked away. _I'm losing the Digimon Queen,_ he thought. _First to that Renamon, and now…now to this other human. Her connections to him and her partner are incredibly strong._ He sighed dejectedly._ No…that's wrong. I lost her well before I saw her again. This merely solidifies it. She'll never be mine as long as she's connected so closely to those two. They're bound to each other. I could never be more than just another digimon for them to devour and not a potential partner. _

Preparing to leave, the ghost of a memory gave him pause. The memory of a shining white demon with tattered wings, long, spindly limbs, and crimson eyes that held no warmth in them. An IceDevimon.

_You failed, didn't you? When the Digimon Queen took her partner you swore you would make her yours no matter what. But after all this time, here she is with her Renamon and now a human while you…I haven't seen you in years. Which is all the best for me I should think. You were too…cold even for Apocalymon._

A blue circle with twisting lines flared to life upon the dream eating digimon's helm. It glowed slightly and he turned to look back at the two humans. They had parted slightly now, speaking quiet words to each other. The light in the strands that connected them flowed and ebbed weakly now for some reason. At that moment, a spark of realization flared in Bakumon's digi-core and he tensed up as possibilities flew through his mind.

_It's not over yet! If…If I play my cards right…I can make the Queen mine and only mine. Yes…_ Bakumon chuckled. _Yes… hope is not lost. I can do this…_

His eyes glowing slightly, Bakumon disappeared in a cloud of smoke. He had plans to make.

* * *

Prometheus emerged from a wall and into a dark, dank corridor. Sniffing the air a little, he looked around.

_It appears that I've arrived in the dungeon section of the castle,_ he thought. _Perfect. This might work out better than I thought it would. If I want to grab GranDracmon's attention and pull him towards the human world, this would be the place to do it. Now, let's see…_

Picking a direction, he made his way down the hallway, passing empty prison cells until he arrived at one that was occupied. Stopping, he looked inside, tilting his head to one side. There was a figure wrapped in an utterly filthy, tattered blanket. His back was facing him, making his identity indiscernible…at least for the moment. Flame patterns crisscrossed Prometheus' arm and he nodded his head.

_Unfinished business. Guess we'll have to take care of that, but for the moment, I know that I need this one._

"So," he spoke, breaking the silence of the dungeon, "what are you in here for?"

The figure did not respond. Scowling, Prometheus looked down on the ground. A bowl lay there, empty of its contents save for a single, yellow-colored bone. Apparently the remains of the prisoner's meal. Kneeling down, Prometheus picked up the bone and stood back up, humming quietly to himself before finally banging the bone on the metal bars. The figure bolted upwards, blinking blearily at him. Prometheus smiled and nodded before tossing the bone back into the bowl with a clang.

"Rise and shine," he said as the figure took stock of the situation. He was human—roughly speaking as black fur ran the length of his body, accompanied by a pair of horns and tattered, human wings. Red eyes glared angrily at him behind a pair of broken glasses. "I was wondering if you could help me with so—."

That was as far as Prometheus got before the figure stormed forward, claws extending themselves outwards from his fingertips and smashing into the gate that separated them. Prometheus took a step backwards, glaring at him while simultaneously rejoicing in the act.

_Good. Good. Just a little more…_

"Jeez," Prometheus grumbled. "With an attitude like that, I should have just let you sleep and come back later when you were more…yourself. All I wanted to know was whether or not you wanted to…"

The figure took in a deep breath and with a powerful bellow that shook the very foundations of the dungeon, his body expanded. With a mighty swipe, the prison gate exploded outwards in Prometheus' face.

"Oh, bugger," Prometheus grumbled sarcastically as he caught a flying piece of gate before it could hit his face. He waited a moment for the dust to settle. Behind him, the remains of an adjacent prison cell creaked before its gate fell inwards with a crash.

_The sleepy ones are always the most cranky…_

The figure was still about human height, and in spite of his display of power, the dungeon did not collapse or do anything else untoward towards them. _Yet._ Prometheus had an idea that this would not go unnoticed.

_But at least this tells me that there's a power limiter being used here. I should probably take care of that before I go so that this guy has a chance. I don't want GranDracmon to kill him for disturbing his peace and quiet after all. Especially since I need him._

Prometheus cracked his neck as the figure crouched down, regarding him warily. Violet flames burst around Prometheus' arms, illuminating the darkness around him.

"All right, pal. You want to do this the hard way? Then let's dance."

* * *

GranDracmon raised a glass of wine to his lips and sipped at it, savoring its taste. He lay on a fine rug in a poised, graceful manner, surrounded by all manner of images of angelic and demonic digimon locked in mortal combat. Here and there, images of humans were mixed into the battle, but their numbers were few and far between. Behind his mask, GranDracmon gazed at the images, his eyes thoughtful and speculative. Memories were never far from him, but the past to him was as a ghost and did not bother him. He lived for the present with thoughts on the future on his mind. The past meant nothing save as something to learn from. That was all. Nothing more, nothing less.

The doors to his chamber opened, and in strode the cloaked figure with LadyDevimon trailing behind him. As they came to a halt before him, GranDracmon nodded to them, continuing to sip at his drink. Neither of them knelt. He didn't require it of any of his servants, nor did he prefer it. Everyone stood or sat at their leisure. Whether or not everyone was equal depended entirely on themselves. That had been the rule since the first foundation to the castle had been laid, and it would remain the rule long after its last master was deleted.

Licking his lips, GranDracmon took one final sip from his glass and set it down on the ground. He turned his attention towards his two guests.

"Welcome home," he said finally. "I trust your journey was a safe one?"

"Except for LadyDevimon, I wasn't noticed," the cloaked figure replied. GranDracmon nodded his approval. It was necessary to maintain a leash on this one—for a while longer anyway.

"You came close, though," GranDracmon noted. "But I think we can let that slide as long as you do not step so far again in the future. Now, tell me about the Passage to the digital world."

"It is currently trapped by some kind of ring of fire. I feel that it leads back to the real world, but…not quite."

"I see. Explain."

The cloaked figure reached up and scratched the side of his face thoughtfully. "I'm…not really good at explaining that sort of thing…"

"It's locked in a loop," supplied LadyDevimon, crossing her arms beneath her breasts. "Data is fed into the human world and then returned to the digital world, where it is dispersed at a slower rate. The Dark Area's expansion is slowed, but not halted."

"The area around it is also empty," added the cloaked figure. "Except for the Tamers and the Knighthood that is, there aren't any digimon around."

"I see." GranDracmon turned towards LadyDevimon. "Is there any indication that any of the other powers have learned of its existence?"

"Only a few minor powers know about it, or at least a rumor of it, but due to its location in your territory they aren't willing to look into it. Some of Dragomon's servants became deposited in the digital world and lived. I believe it's only a matter of time before he investigates. And he will…"

"Indeed," nodded GranDracmon. "If he arrives, be sure to show him where the Passageway is located."

LadyDevimon hesitated before a smirk crawled across her face. "Of course, master."

GranDracmon waved a dismissive hand to them now, indicating that their meeting was over. The cloaked figure tilted his head to one side, surprised, but knowing that once the meeting was over there would be no further discussion until they were called again he turned and left with LadyDevimon, the door closing behind them. As soon as they were alone, LadyDevimon reached out and grabbed him roughly by the shoulder, pressing her claws into him just enough to make her presence known. The cloaked figure repressed an unconscious shudder.

"I don't want to spar right now, LadyDevimon…" he said in a low voice. His cloak flexed and convulsed beneath the demoness' touch, and electricity danced around where her claws. LadyDevimon _hmmmphed_ and tightened her grip before withdrawing.

"All right," she said in a deep, sultry voice. "I suppose you've earned that right this time. But you know what that means. Someone else is going to have to suffer in your place…"

In a flash, LadyDevimon felt the cloaked figure's fist crack across her jaw. The blow wasn't enough to stagger her, let alone harm her, but it got her attention. Lashing outwards, she grabbed the cloaked figure by the throat, pressing her claws into his skin.

"Holding back on me? I thought you learned by now…don't _ever_ hold back on me. After all," LadyDevimon grinned, malice shining in her crimson eyes, "it will only make it _worse."_

The cloaked figure's cape shifted to a blue color then, and electricity flew into her face, causing her to cry out in surprise and release her charge. LadyDevimon laughed as she backed off, wiping at her cheek. She stared the cloaked figure in the face, seeing the shadows crawl across his right arm, forming a lance. A red glow shined within his hood where his eyes were. And yet, she noted that in spite of his stance, she could see a frantic shake in his body.

"Yes… That's it," LadyDevimon whispered gleefully. "This is why you will always suffer. Because you refuse to let others suffer in your place. You don't want to fight me or harm me, but you can't stand the thought of what I might do to someone or something because you didn't stand in my way. After all," LadyDevimon narrowed her eyes, "you learned that the hard way, didn't you?"

Faster than the cloaked figure could react, LadyDevimon rushed forward and threw him against the wall, knocking the breath out of his lungs. Taking advantage of his momentary impairment, she pushed her face towards him, breathing lightly and exhilarant against his supple, pink skin.

"Now to reap my rewards," she breathed before sinking her fangs into his neck. The cloaked figure jerked reflexively. A surge of power welled up in him as his instincts for survival overwhelmed his lack of air. Lightning burst outwards, slamming into LadyDevimon and throwing her off him. The demoness fell backwards with a cry, hitting the stone ground hard. She recovered quickly though, and looked up, licking red blood off her lips, to find the cloaked figure slumping down on the wall, his breath coming out in shaky breaths as he watched her. He didn't speak, his silence that of the cold knowledge and experience of being in her presence for so long. LadyDevimon chuckled.

_All you can do is endure,_ she thought. _And in this Hell, without any hope, how long can you keep it up? You can't escape after all, and touching the daylight, knowing that it can never, truly be yours again won't help. Your breed of miracles is done and over with. No more narrow escapes for you…_

LadyDevimon got to her feet and ran her tongue the length of her lips, getting the remainder of the blood she took from him. It left a sultry taste in her mouth, driving her to degrees of excitement that she relished. As always, it left her craving for _more…_

A loud explosion rocked the floor beneath the two combatants, and all thoughts of their battle evaporated at once. Frowning, LadyDevimon looked over her shoulder before vanishing from view entirely. Another explosion resounded upon the air, and the cloaked figure pushed himself up with a groan, one hand cupping his neck to stem the flow of blood. It hurt, but it would pass in due time. At least, that was what he hoped.

After he made sure that his balance would remain stable, he stalked off, heading for the source of the explosions.

* * *

A large hole in the floor was the first thing that the cloaked figure as he finally located the source. The next thing he noticed were the two combatants. Neither one of them he recognized.

_This is bad…_ he thought as he watched a bellowing behemoth slash at a smaller, human who seemed to dance out of the paths of the chains affixed to his attacker's wrists. The chains flailed about like cruel whips, smashing stone with frightening ease. Power baked off the creature in waves, leaving the cloaked figure feeling a little nervous as to how to approach the situation.

LadyDevimon had no such sense of caution as she materialized out of the shadows and dove towards the battlefield. Slashing her claws to the side, she sent a cloud of bats tearing into the two combatants.

**"Darkness Wave!"**

The human jumped backwards and unleashed a wave of violet fire, obliterating the bats before they could even touch him. With a smirk, he looked up at his attacker and raised an eyebrow.

"Nice hair," he commented. "Is that for anyone I know?"

LadyDevimon narrowed her eyes at the human and surged forward, one arm transforming into a vicious spike. The human waved one hand to the side and sent a stream of fire towards her. Seeing this, the cloaked figure cursed under his breath and jumped forward. Shadows moved from behind his cloak and wove themselves into a solid, silver and gray shield, which he hurled forward like a Frisbee between LadyDevimon and her human attacker. The flames impacted the shield, leaving its surface darkened. Leaping off the ground, the cloaked figure drove his lance forward.

Oddly enough, the human did not at all seem concerned by him, or by the LadyDevimon for that matter. Instead, he whipped his arm around and a rope of flame wrapped around the cloaked figure. Pulling on it roughly, the human threw him into LadyDevimon, sending them both careening to the side from the force of the impact.

Dusting off his hands, the human turned back towards the demonic behemoth who rampaged towards him, chains slashing outwards.

"If it didn't work the first time," he said in an amused tone, "what makes you think it will work _this _time? Oh well, Kurata…your 'partner' was always such an unthinking brute whenever his sleep was broken…"

Catching the chain, the human sent a stream of fire into it that ran up its length and into the creature. The behemoth howled as lines of code flashed across his body. Data was released into the air and he began to shrink. A long, human face began to assert itself as he collapsed to the ground, crying out in pain.

The human sighed as he placed one hand on his hip and shook his head.

"Sorry to cut your return to normalcy short, but I really need to get going here. Now if you could just hear me out…"

**"Black Wing!"**

"Oh dear…"

Spinning on a dime, the human caught LadyDevimon's spike and flung her into a wall, causing it to shatter from the force of the impact. The human cracked his knuckles, checking around him to find the cloaked figure standing, black lance aiming at him with his blue cloak flapping in the air.

"How about you?" the human asked. "I'm springing this guy…he's human like you by the way. You want to come along?"

The cloaked figure hesitated suddenly, his lance wavering in the air ever so subtly. Before he could even reply a shadow appeared on the ground before the human and rose up into the air. The human placed both hands on his hips now, violet flame patterns causing energies to swirl like a pair of circular saw blades.

"Oh oh. It would appear that I've woken up the wrong mon now…"

The shadow began to take shape, becoming quadruped while two shark heads snapped into view, biting at the air. Within a second, GranDracmon solidified, towering over the intruder.

"May I enquire," he began in a cultured, respectful voice, "as to your nature and your reason for being here?"

"Yes, you may, GranDracmon," said the human, offering a sweeping bow. "But as it appears that I am just and fairly caught by you—a meeting that I dreadfully wanted to avoid—I fear that I must part ways." He turned briefly towards the misshapen humanoid figure lying on the ground and smiled at him. "Kurata…I'll be back for you soon enough. Count on that."

With that, the human flicked his wrists, and a torrent of violet fire surrounded him, and he vanished into thin air.

* * *

Prometheus stepped outside of the wall of fire and into the surface level of the digital world. He stretched his limbs, pausing just long enough to check on Marcus and Agumon where they lay. They were still unconscious, though Marcus appeared to be in the throes of an intense fever dream. Shrugging nonchalantly, Prometheus started walking forward, hands clasped behind his head.

"Well…that should stir a few feathers. Onto the next phase."

* * *

A/N: Sorry for the lack of updates this week. Been pretty busy with work, and I don't get much time afterwards to do much writing, though I had plenty of time to think about the direction I wanted to go in. Now, about the chapter.

As I'm sure you've noticed, Kurata has entered the game, albeit in the form of a prisoner of GranDracmon. How he's alive and why he's where he is will be discussed. I just couldn't resist bringing in another Data Squad tie-in seeing as how Belphemon seemed to be a pretty big-bad (having been sealed away) and not just another digimon that only happened to resemble him because of the species they shared. I figured that if I was going to include the Demon Lords, Belphemon would carry Kurata with him as they had merged.

There are a _lot_ of clues as to who the Cloaked Figure is scattered throughout this story, perhaps the most blatant of which is the LadyDevimon who is tasked with keeping tabs on him and keep him in line. Her having red hair was a last minute addition and she was originally meant to be just a regular LadyDevimon. However, as I began plotting out her character, her connection with the Cloaked Figure began to take on a more personal form as one of her tasks is to mess around with him psychologically. Her hair color being changed would help out a lot with that, and it served to give her a sense of uniqueness that set her apart from other LadyDevimon.

Anyway, hope that you like the chapter. See you next time. :P

-Crazyeight

* * *

9


	25. Rising Mists

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.

Revival

Chapter: 25/ Rising Mists

Kurata let loose a howl as convulsions tore their way throughout his body. His hands—human-like now—clawed at his chest and saliva frothed at his mouth. As he lay there, muscles collapsed and reformed themselves, shrinking and altering to more human lines. However, his overall appearance did not change much. Tough, black colored, leathery skin mottled his body, broken only in small patches of white that appeared as half-healed burn scars. Chains remained wrapped around his body, and horns remained affixed to his skull, though a mop of unruly hair manifested itself. With one final cry, Kurata went limp, breathing heavily. His eyes rolled around, taking in his surroundings. His vision fell on the demonic form of LadyDevimon, who regarded him with disdain.

"You make such a fuss," she sneered, "and all over a simple transformation."

"Be quiet, LadyDevimon," spoke up a new voice, this one youthful and masculine. Kurata's eyes shifted towards a figure wearing a blue cloak. Narrowing his eyes, he looked closer into the figure's hood, and found himself pleasantly surprised to see that his face was human—more specifically that of a young teenager with kind eyes. They genuinely seemed to be full of concern for his well-being. "Just ignore her. She's like that with everyone she meets."

"You're…human…" Kurata croaked. He swallowed. His throat felt so parched it was like swallowing a desert.

"So are you from what I hear," the cloaked figure smiled. "Could have fooled me though." The boy turned away and looked upwards. Kurata followed his gaze towards a massive figure standing on four legs. Two shark heads stood out prominently before him, slavering hungrily, while sitting atop them was a man holding himself with a gentlemanly poise.

_A digimon…_

"GranDracmon…who is he?" asked the cloaked boy.

"His name is Akihiro Kurata," replied GranDracmon. "He is a criminal in the digital world and to the human world—the one that he originated from. From his actions, I would believe that he would be considered a criminal in other human worlds as well. He is responsible for mass genocide."

The cloaked boy frowned. "But…I don't understand. Why is he here? Why is he like this? Is he like me?"

"In some manner yes, but unlike you he possessed the body of the Demon Lord Belphemon. Rest assured though, he deserves to be here."

"Don't we all?" scoffed LadyDevimon with a scowl, brushing her crimson hair over one shoulder. GranDracmon ignored her and focused his attention fully on Kurata.

"Where am I?" Kurata swallowed again, but not from nerves. He felt too weak from his transformation to feel fear. All he had…were questions. He had no memory of what had happened to him.

_The last thing I remember was that brat, Marcus Damon…standing in the palm of his digimon pet and then he attacked me. After that…nothing. _Kurata scowled, wracking his brains for something—anything that could help him. Unfortunately for him, nothing but a dank blankness came to mind. It felt as though he had been buried alive and made to sleep for the longest time…

GranDracmon turned towards LadyDevimon and her cloaked companion.

"Take him to one of the visitor's quarters," he said, his tone carrying a strange sense of compassion on top of an authority that felt like a master in his home. "I shall send for someone to take care of his injuries."

"You're going to waste them on this pathetic excuse of a human?"

"To get answers, yes. Now do as I say, LadyDevimon."

The demonic woman glared at the massive digimon, but nodded reluctantly. Stepping over to Kurata she roughly pulled him upwards. He nearly collapsed to the floor again, but the cloaked boy was right there to catch him, quickly looping his free arm over his shoulders to support his limp weight.

"Easy there. I've got you." The boy offered him a smile before turning an exasperated look to LadyDevimon. "You know…I'm human too."

"And don't think I haven't forgotten," the demoness replied, looking at him haughtily. "We still have to finish our match by the way."

"Don't think I've forgotten," the boy grimaced. With that, the two strode off with their charge. GranDracmon watched them go; faintly amused by how their respective approach to carrying Kurata differed. With a humorous smile, he melted into the shadows and returned to his chambers.

* * *

Kurata groaned as he was laid down on a soft bed. His bones creaked, echoing his sentiment.

_It feels as though I haven't slept on anything soft in forever,_ he thought, his body practically melting into the bed. Cracking open his eyes, his gaze fell on the human boy as he pulled off his cloak. Holding it before him briefly, the cloak shifted form, becoming reptilian in appearance. It lacked any discernable features and appeared more as shadow than anything else. Taking down a lantern from off the wall, the boy held it out in front of the shadow. A brief flare of crimson fire and a second later the lamp was ablaze with light, illuminating the room. Kurata glanced around him, feeling amazed by what he saw while at the same time somewhat frightened by it. Shadows danced along the spacious walls, carving vicious, many-fanged mouths and eyes that stared hungrily at him. Yet the fire from the lantern assured him that he would be safe in this room for as long as he dwelt within it.

The room itself was quite luxurious, in some ways reminding him of the flat that he had prior to ending up…wherever here was, with many chairs and a few tables for writing letters on. If anything, it appeared as an old Victorian room in all of its glamour.

"Could this really be the digital world…?" he mused aloud. The sound of LadyDevimon barking a laugh broke the quiet of the room.

"The digital world," she chuckled. "Is that where you think you are? You must have lost your mind while you were dwelling in those dungeons."

The boy frowned across from her, but did not comment on that. Instead, he turned towards Kurata. "Well…it's like the digital world."

"Don't soften the blow for him," LadyDevimon snarled. "This is as far from the digital world that you can get. Outside of crossing into the Celestial Plain that is, or even the World of Thoughts." LadyDevimon smirked at Kurata. "You have bad luck to end up here, human. Welcome to the Dark Area, the Ocean between the Worlds. You are in digital hell, where all the sinners of the digital world end up when they are deleted."

"Digital hell…" Kurata croaked. "Don't make me laugh. You _things_ aren't real. You have no soul…"

Crimson claws stabbed into the pillow where his head lay, and Kurata found himself staring up into the fearsome eyes of LadyDevimon. A smirk crawled across her lips, but fury blazed in her vision.

"Then why don't we see what this _thing_ is going to do to you…" she whispered in a husky voice. Crimson hair spilled down her shoulders and tickled Kurata's face, yet he did not break his gaze from hers.

"LadyDevimon!"

The female digimon snorted and withdrew her claws, disappearing into the shadows. Tension seemed to melt off the air and the boy sighed.

"Sorry about that. She…can be kind of testy about some things. You'll find a lot of digimon are around here." The boy pulled up a chair and sat down in it while the shadowy outline of his cloak-turned-reptile stood next to him, eerily silent and watching him with invisible eyes. "Anyway…you're name is Kurata right? Mine is Takato. Takato Matsuki."

"And what?" asked Kurata. "Is that supposed to make us friends now? Brothers in species? I can already see that you're in league with these creatures."

"You don't like digimon very much do you?" asked Takato, tilting his head to one side. After a moment he gave a harsh chuckle. "Well, I guess that's no surprise. I used to know a guy with that attitude. He wanted to destroy all digimon, but he wound up making things even worse along the way." Takato's eyes became nostalgic for a moment but Kurata was quick to break that moment.

"I hate digimon," Kurata grumbled, turning his face away. "They're a pestilence that needs to be wiped out if humanity has any chance to survive." Kurata was quiet for a moment before laughing lightly. "That's probably something that I shouldn't be saying out loud… After all, I'm in the care of them as well as one of their fans."

Takato shrugged. "GranDracmon would still make sure that he would take care of you. He took care of me." A troubled look then crossed his face but he quickly dismissed it.

"Don't pander to me, kid," Kurata said spitefully. He turned to look Takato square in the face. "I may be out of the loop, but your big _boss_ is only keeping me around because he wants one thing from me: answers! Once he's done with me, I'm gone. Dead. Do you get that?"

"But…" Takato tilted his head to one side in confusion. "…you're already dead…right?"

Kurata blinked in surprise. Now _that_ wasn't something he expected to hear.

"…What?"

"I asked if you're…" the boy hesitated before continuing. "…dead. I mean, that's how most people end up here. That's how I ended up here after all."

Kurata pushed himself up onto one arm. His arm shook from the strain, leading him to briefly wonder if his muscles had atrophied but he quickly pushed it out of his mind.

"You don't look dead to me, kid."

Although he had barely known him for very long, Kurata swore Takato's face took on an expression that seemed most unnatural for him. It was a deep pondering one that was tinged with fear, as though he were contemplating something terrible.

"I sometimes think that I'm not. I mean, I keep getting injured and I bleed…" Takato shifted his shirt down slightly, revealing two puncture wounds on his neck that looked suspiciously like someone bit him. "Dead people don't bleed normally, do they?"

"You're asking me, kid?" Kurata shifted himself backwards, propping himself up on the pillow behind him. It was starting to become laborious to sit on his arm like that. "Let's forget about that for now." Kurata instinctively pushed his hand upwards on the bridge of his nose, and upon finding his glasses there he took them off to examine them. "Damn…broken…"

"I can get those fixed for you," Takato offered. "I know a Wisemon who can help."

Kurata looked at his glasses thoughtfully before tossing them over to Takato. "Whatever," he muttered. "Anyway, as I was about to say before I was so rudely interrupted by my inconvenience… How did I get here? I don't remember showing up here or anything. Just where _is_ here anyway?"

"This is the Dark Area," replied Takato. "Well…the TV show called it the Dark Ocean because, well, it was first shown as a beach. I guess it makes sense…in context…sort of." Takato rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment. "I don't know how you got here. This is actually the first time that I've even heard about you, and I've been here for almost a year. Well, in this castle anyway. I've been living in the Dark Area for far longer…"

"Hmmm…I see." Kurata raised one hand and looked at it speculatively. "Well…all right then. I guess you're not going to be of any help to me then."

A hurt look crossed Takato's face but before he could say anything else the door clicked open and in walked a tall, gray and violet colored digimon, dressed in priests robes with a fox-like face mask; a Doumon.

"I am here to see the patient," the Doumon explained. Takato nodded and got up from his chair. With a gesture, the shadowy reptile's form shifted and flowed into his hand, transforming into his cloak. He quickly swept it up and placed it around his shoulders.

"I'll see you later," Takato said. Kurata _hmmphed_, folding his arms over each other. The door closed, leaving him alone with the Doumon, who looked at him dispassionately.

"Well," Kurata said in annoyance. "Let's get this over with. A second later he sneezed.

_God dammit…

* * *

_

Takato made his way down the hallway of GranDracmon's castle, his brow knotted so deeply in thought that he almost didn't notice LadyDevimon materialize next to him, falling into step and matching his pace easily.

"You're not attacking me," he noted. LadyDevimon raised one hand and looked at her claws with an interested look.

"That can change," she said, smirking. Takato nodded in understanding, providing the demoness with a forced smile.

"You never told me that we had a human living here."

"There was no need to. He showed up a few months before you did. He was continuously caught up in transforming between human and digimon, attacking everything that moved until GranDracmon forced him to fall asleep." LadyDevimon swept one hand over her hair and tsked. "Really. He was a bad memory that I would have been happy to forget."

"What's going to happen to him?"

"Leave the thinking to GranDracmon, human," LadyDevimon sighed. "It will be easier on your conscience." LadyDevimon glanced at him out of the corner of her eye. "Easier for you on the whole I should say."

Takato grimaced, quickly getting the message behind her words.

_But I can't just let it go…can I?_ Takato raised one hand and pressed it against his side, as though remembering the pain of an old wound. He narrowed his eyes thoughtfully. He didn't like the thought that ran through his mind. _What would my old friends say if they saw me now?_

"You have that look on your face," observed LadyDevimon.

"What look?"

"Don't play dumb with me," she snarled. "As empty headed as you can be, you did _not_ live this long here by being completely stupid! That human is dead as soon as his purpose is over. He's not even worth your trying to save him! Not by your standards of excellence!"

"So you keep telling me about everything in this place."

Takato then gave a surprised cry as LadyDevimon suddenly and violently shoved him forward, nearly knocking him off his feet. He quickly recovered though, taking note of the fact that the demoness had not put her full strength into it.

_"Fine,"_ she hissed. "But you should know that I'm not going to help you. If you do what you're thinking of doing, you're on your own and I will _gladly_ bring in your head myself."

_So why don't you?_ wondered Takato, though he didn't say it out loud. He knew from firsthand experience that LadyDevimon was not the kind of digimon to be pushed.

"That's okay," he said instead, offering her an understanding smile. "I wouldn't have asked you to do it anyway. I'm the only one who needs to lose his head for something like this anyway." Takato laughed lightly and rubbed the back of his head, feeling slightly uncomfortable for his gallows humor. He waited for a reaction from LadyDevimon, only to be surprised to find her regarding him with cool anger on her face before she melted into the darkness of the hall. Takato raised an eyebrow, somewhat taken aback by LadyDevimon's reaction…or rather the lack of it.

_You know…I think that's the first time I've seen her hold back…_

Shrugging his shoulders, Takato proceeded towards GranDracmon's chambers. Despite the long, twisting paths involved, he arrived there in short order, standing outside the main doors. He raised one hand hesitantly to knock on the door.

"The door is open, Takato," came the voice of GranDracmon before his knuckles could even land on the solid wood. "You know you have the freedom to enter as you choose."

Takato nodded nervously, chiding himself for being so formal in the presence of GranDracmon, the very digimon who had taken him in ever since they first met. Pushing the door open, Takato entered the room to find GranDracmon languishing upon his rug while reading a leather bound book. The giant demon nodded to him and after placing a bookmark where he left off, closed it. Setting it down, GranDracmon turned towards him.

"You are worried about Kurata," he said simply. Takato sighed.

"Jeez…am I _that _easily readable."

GranDracmon smiled down at him in an almost fatherly manner. "Not so much as the manner of books, Takato. But I have gotten to know you. You are a curious standout in the Dark Area. You constantly worry about others, even when they should give you no reason to be. Much like your relationship with the LadyDevimon whose care you have been placed under…"

"Not so much as placed under as she made it her duty," mumbled Takato. GranDracmon smiled beneath his mask and nodded towards the corridor.

"Speaking of whom…LadyDevimon? Why don't you join us instead of skulking about outside? It's rather unbecoming of a woman like you."

Crimson hair and black leather spilled out of the shadows and the lithe form of LadyDevimon strode up to stand behind Takato. She eyed the young teenager carefully before turning her attention up to her master.

"Now…let us see if I can answer your questions," said GranDracmon. "Kurata is not going to die."

LadyDevimon's eyes widened as she stiffened in surprise. _"What?"_ she breathed while Takato sighed in relief.

"Kurata is not going to die," GranDracmon repeated. "I don't think I need to remind you that, as this place is the digital world's equivalent to hell, deleting him would serve no meaning, as data is always preserved in one form or another to be reformatted elsewhere. However, I have other reasons for this, one of which involves this…entity that we encountered. _He_ is most definitely not human. What is more, he came looking for Kurata specifically, and means to capture him for his own purposes." GranDracmon smiled. "He means to draw me out."

"Huh?" Takato raised an eyebrow. "But…wasn't he looking for Kurata?"

"He may need Kurata for what is inside of him, but the way he handled himself and escaped so easily… Really Takato. Don't be so easily fooled. He could have come and gone without my having been aware of it, and taken his prize as well. It's not as though I have need for him at the moment."

"Um…not wanting to change the subject, but why _do_ you have Kurata imprisoned."

GranDracmon snapped a finger, and a wine glass rose into the air. A pitcher levitated over to the glass and poured the violet liquid into it, and he accepted it, dismissing the pitcher a second later.

"That is because of the Belphemon side of him was out of control. There was really only one way to ensure that he couldn't cause any more damage to the surrounding environs."

"By imprisoning him?" Takato felt confused. Although he didn't like the idea of killing another digimon, doing so was the rather straightforward problem solving technique in the Dark Area, and many digimon, LadyDevimon especially, used it almost exclusively. It seemed rather…out of place, even for GranDracmon.

"Would you have done anything different, Takato?" asked GranDracmon, taking a small sip of his wine. "I do not kill when I have no need to."

"Oh," was all Takato had to say on the matter, still feeling a bit troubled. GranDracmon chuckled.

"I believe that this requires some investigating," the demonic digimon continued. "I would like to know what he wants with me and Belphemon, but for that to happen I need to trace his trail. Takato."

"Yes?"

"You shall lead the search."

The boy blinked in surprise. "Say wha…?"

"You acquitted yourself well on the field when I let you out, although you need a little supervision. So LadyDevimon will accompany you, to make sure that you stay in line. After all, I suspect there is a strong chance that you will be heading to one of the human worlds."

"Wait. What?"

"Just a hunch. This entity has hidden depths and the smell of humans about him. I believe that his trail—one of many—may lead there. For now however, restrict your search to the surface level of the digital world as you have before and investigate all oddities occurring there. Once you have collected enough data, report to me and we will decide from there."

LadyDevimon looked down at Takato with disdainful eyes.

"Why send this one?" she asked. "You have far better servants. He has the tendency to act on his own…"

"Which is why you're going with him," replied GranDracmon, taking another sip from his drink.

"Of course, but…still. His capabilities are subpar at best, and it's not as though any of your servants can't create a human form for themselves to blend in, in case a trip to a human world is necessary."

"Because, a human face is necessary to keep Kurata in line. Seeing as how my castle is a useless fortification to protect him with, keeping him on the move will be a far better idea. And he does not get along very well with digimon. Even those that look human."

LadyDevimon glared down at Takato, but said no more.

"Now Takato, I'll trust you with the preparations and to make sure you are properly supplied. Keep your group small in number. Any large movements will be easily discovered. I hope that you haven't forgotten that basic fact after being so long from the harshness of the desert plain of the digital world."

"Sure," nodded Takato, though a troubled expression crossed his face. "No problem."

* * *

"You got lucky," said LadyDevimon as the two of them left GranDracmon's chambers.

"I used to be known for that," Takato replied. "Nice to know that it's coming back in small pieces."

"Luck won't last you forever you know. Sooner or later…"

"…It fails. Yeah." Takato strode onwards while LadyDevimon came to a halt. "I know. I know really well."

"Then remember it for once," she told him, narrowing her eyes. Her gaze was on Takato's back as he kept going. He didn't answer, nor did she expect him to. As soon as he turned a corner, she faded from view, melting into the darkness of the hallway.

* * *

Takato closed the door to his chamber with a quiet click and breathed a sigh of relief. His cloak flowed off his body, assuming the form of a shadowy reptile with bat-like ears. It regarded him with quant curiosity, but as always it didn't speak or make a noise. Instead, it strode over to the fireplace, already lit and curled up next to it. Takato watched it and smiled briefly, but his smile faded almost as soon as it appeared, replaced by an exhausted look in his eyes. He looked over at his bed, tempted to fall into it and let the day's exertions fade away from him. Instead he settled for sitting on the edge of the bed and placing his face in his hands, enveloping his vision in darkness. He found it strange. So often he had been afraid of the dark, and this world gave him even more reason to be so, but it was darkness like this that had come to give him comfort. After a few deep breaths, he felt his spirits lift a little and he raised his head, sitting his chin on top of his hands and stared at the fire.

_I saw my friends from back home for the first time in years,_ he thought quietly to himself. He felt a longing tug in him. In a way he had to admit, he hoped that the day's intruder would come from a human world—_his _human world to be more specific. Out of all the worlds that existed—and it surprised him to no end to learn that many did—the desert plain was closest to the one that he once called home and would be the easiest to get to. He desperately wanted to see it, to breathe its air, even if only for a moment…

_So why do I feel scared to go there?_ he wondered. Takato hitched another sigh and closed his eyes. He felt so tired. The past three years weighed on him heavily, and there didn't seem to be any sign that it would let up. Even with the hope of seeing home he did not believe he would be free. He was chained to this world irrevocably, and even GranDracmon's power, as great as it was, would not permit him to be free even if he stepped out into the light of the human world and refused to return to the Dark Area.

_Tomorrow…_ thought Takato, reopening his eyes to gaze at the flickering fire. _We'll see what tomorrow brings.

* * *

_

A/N: GranDracmon begins to make his move, searching for Prometheus, and already guessing that it was all just a ploy to draw him out. Inspired by Nolaquen265's depiction, I really wanted to show GranDracmon as being very cultured and even a little elegant (hence his reading of a book). He's not a villain in the classical sense, where things are black and white and very visible. Part of his power lies in his voice, which has turned angels to corruption, so it made sense to me that he would 'dress himself', as it were, in a manner that would set others at ease so that he could manipulate them to do his bidding. His approach to 'Takato' is very much in the same manner, providing him with something of a fatherly/authoritative figure, and having helped him out of 'benevolance'. His words about why Kurata wasn't killed outright when he (or rather Belphemon) rampaged in his castle also helps to illustrate this point. He appears in control of himself and pragmatic. It's harder to condemn a leader who tries to resolve a situation before resorting to extreme measures than it is with someone who resorts to extreme measures first. At least until you get to know them a little bit more.

And speaking of Takato…surprise! This little bit was in the back of my head for a while ever since I killed Takato briefly in Less than Human. I've also had a story idea of what it would be like for a human if they were transported to the Dark Area and were forced to live there for an extended period of time. This version of Takato, cut off from the point that he was killed, is a little bit different from his prime counterpart, having lived a rougher existence and has no clue that he still 'lives' back home. The core of his personality remains though, and despite his circumstances Takato would fight to make a better life for others, even though it has been sorely tested over the years (making GranDracmon's intervention something of a reprieve for his already taxed sanity—LadyDevimon notwithstanding, though that gives him something to fight for).

Next chapter we'll be returning to the real world, with some tidbits on Norn and Prometheus as they step up their plans to the next phase. 'Till then. :P

-Crazyeight

* * *

8


	26. Waking Up

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.

Revival

Chapter: 26/ Waking Up

Riley sat at the table in the break room, going over the latest series of images from the digital world. A frown furrowed across her face as she analyzed the cloaked figure that had so recently destroyed one of their Tracers. Final data reports sent by the Tracer indicated a number of unusual arrangements of code within the being, but what they were could not be accurately assessed as the Tracer had been destroyed before it could conduct a thorough job. However, what could be said for certain was this: the cloaked figure was _not_ a digimon.

Riley took a sip from her coffee cup and set it back down. At that moment, Tally poked her head in.

"Hey," the shorthaired woman greeted cheerfully. "Haven't seen you in a while. What's going on?"

"New assignments it seems," nodded Riley. "Yamaki has me jumping through hoops, going from one thing to the next." She raised her coffee mug to her lips again and took another drink. "Lately it feels like I'm doing his job instead of my own. I've had to file reports and interviews…things that he would normally be doing."

"Weird." Tally raised an eyebrow. "He's not the sort to shirk his responsibilities… Well, except when it comes to things that are outside his workaholic life…"

Riley arched an eyebrow at her, and Tally waved a placating hand at her as she grabbed her Hogmon mug.

"Sorry. Sorry. I didn't mean anything by it…"

"No, you're right." Riley chuckled. "Yamaki has the habit of putting my relationship with him on the side when it comes to anything involving the digital world. He's not shirking his job off on me by the way. He's still as involved as ever. I just seem to be taking care of the little things."

"That's not a bad thing, is it? You're getting more experience in the field and in operations after all. That makes you more valuable. It'll make it less likely some guy from the government is going to up and fire you because they don't like Yamaki and how he handles things. And we all know that your position isn't from favoritism…"

Riley shrugged. "I didn't say I was complaining. I'm just a little irritated. Yamaki's not filling me in on something, that's all."

"Oh?" Tally sat down in a chair, an intensely interested look appearing in her eyes. "A little trouble in paradise?"

"Nothing that's kicked Yamaki out of bed and onto the sofa so far, if that's what you mean."

"Not sure how I can help you there if it's not something like that." Tally took a swig from her mug.

"Do you and Kuroda get into a lot of fights?"

"No. We don't even live together…yet." Tally's face became reflective then and she massaged her fingertips along the rim of her cup. Riley smiled at her friend.

"That's been on your mind lately, hasn't it?"

"It's been three years," groaned Tally, slumping onto the table. "We've slept together, gone out, done a lot of things… Did you know he's really a closet Otaku? And that at night, when we're having sex, he can get really experimental, like when he tried this one thing involving a ball…"

"I _really_ don't want to hear any gross details."

"I was joking about that last one," smirked Tally. "He's really rather sweet and gentle. He only gets aggressive towards the end."

"Tallyyy…"

"Sorry." Tally laughed lightly and took another sip before continuing. "Feels a little bit like the shoes on the other foot though. I used to complain about your sex life and the lack of mine. Now I'm wondering when Kuroda and I are going to go any further and…" Tally paused, sighed, and shook her head. "…But I didn't want to get onto that subject. What do you think Yamaki's up to?"

"It used to involve bad news for someone," Riley replied, flipping over a photo and looking over a data chart. "Now I can't even begin to guess. Maybe I just don't want to guess."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means that maybe I should see that Takahashi guy—the one that's supposed to psychoanalyze the Tamers or some such." Riley leaned back in her chair and groaned. "Maybe I need to go on vacation. I haven't used any of my free time in months."

"Hmmm…" Tally leaned over and picked through the photos that Riley had sprawled in front of her. "Do you think it has anything to do with this weird cloaked guy that we picked up yesterday?"

Riley shrugged nonchalantly. "Probably not. He's been like that for the past few days though. I'm tempted to hack his email to find any clues."

Tally chuckled at her coworker's joke. "I'll ask Kuroda if he can help. That's one of his _specialties."_

Riley raised an eyebrow. "When you say that, it doesn't sound like the meaning it should have…"

_"Riley!"_

Riley laughed lightly. "Momentai, Tally. Momentai."

* * *

Kuroda yawned as he made his way down the halls of Hypnos.

_Damn it, Tally,_ he grumbled mentally. _You tell me to relax, and then you end up keeping me up all damn night. My dear, you are nothing but contradictions._

He shook his head, trying to clear the fog of exhaustion from his mind. He was tempted to go to the break room to grab himself a cup of coffee—anything to get rid of the feeling that he was moving through waist deep mud—but he knew Tally would be there as that was always her _first_ stop in the day. As much as he loved her—_cared_ about her—whenever it came to the morning after an exhausting bout of sex, he preferred to have a little distance to recuperate.

_At least she's understanding about that,_ he mused, stopping at a nearby vending machine. _No coffee, but a soft drink ought to at least get me going. Ugh…I can already hear Tally telling me that my mouth tastes like carbonated sugar water…_

Kuroda paused in his scrounging of the necessary yen to make his purchase, analyzing his last thought. A second later, he leaned forward and struck his head lightly against the machine.

_Ow… _"I _really_ need some time off from this…"

"I know the expression is 'use your head'," chuckled a voice from next to him, "but I was pretty sure they meant that for more constructive purposes than attempting to damage the vending machine."

Raising an eyebrow, Kuroda turned to find one of the Monster Makers, Daisy, standing next to him with an amused look on her face. Sighing, Kuroda regained his posture and pushed his glasses up on his face.

"I've just got a lot on my mind right now. How's Urocyomon doing?"

"Shibumi's doing a double check on his code now," she said, fishing out some yen from her wallet. "Going over his data with a fine toothed comb I guess you could say, just in case something hitched a ride. But he's awake."

"Oh?"

"You look pleased," Daisy observed. Kuroda snorted.

"Is there a reason why I shouldn't be?"

"You've made it pretty clear that you're not a fan of digimon. Or the digital world for that matter."

"It's a sick show that should be wiped off the face of the Earth. Urocyomon…I think is an exception. He's human."

"And yet he's a digimon, heart and soul."

"Did you come here to get something, or did you come here specifically just to rag on me about my beliefs?"

Daisy frowned at the man, but inserted her yen bill into the vending machine all the same. A second later the two of them were both leaning side by side, knocking back their drinks.

"Anyway, it probably won't be a good idea for you to see Urocyomon for a bit. Shibumi aside, Yamaki is going to have a talk with him and that could take a while."

"So I gathered. Besides, I still have a project to finish up. I can't really take any personal time away from it until that's done and over with." Kuroda reached up and began massaging his head. "I'm _really_ hoping to have some good news today."

"We're here to help you know."

"I know. I've talked to Yamaki about freeing up some resources. You guys are the best authority on anything that has to do with digimon and the digital world. You would be the ones to go too. I guess Yamaki hasn't gotten around to it yet, has he?"

"He did. He spoke to us yesterday. He's pulling Babel and Curley off their projects to help out."

"For a team that works surprisingly well together, you keep getting spread out a lot."

A smug smirk appeared on Daisy's face. "When you're this good, the least you can do is share your knowledge with everyone. Anyway, there's going to be a meeting today in the main control room. We're going to be brainstorming a solution to the Gateway problem, so let's see what we can come up with."

"What time is the meeting?"

"Within the next hour or so," replied Daisy, checking her watch. "Didn't you get the email?"

"There've been problems with the server…"

"Oh, right." Daisy laughed a little. "Well, either way, let's get cracking on a plan."

_Yeah,_ thought Kuroda, taking another swig from his bottle. _Let's.

* * *

_

Marcus let go of a heavy groan as he pushed himself up from off the ground. Pain racked his body, but for the moment, it seemed to be bearable. Flipping himself over, he breathed heavily and glanced over at the wall of fire directly in front of him.

_Huh?_ He gasped mentally, trying to regain his usual flow of thought. _What…is that?_

Movement caught his eye, and the number one street fighter of the digital world saw an inky blackness creep out from beneath the wall of fire. All at once, a memory of a hazy, dark beach assaulted his mind, and he found himself pulling himself up, getting his feet away from the shadow before it could touch him.

"Agumon!" he shouted. No sooner did the words leave his mouth did he sway on his feet, vertigo suddenly seizing him. He quickly managed to regain his sense of balance, fighting the disorientation down before returning his attention to what mattered: finding Agumon.

It didn't take him very long to do so. The orange-scaled dinosaur was lying right next to him, snoring loudly. Breathing a sigh of relief, Marcus leaned down and shouldered him.

_Just like how we first met,_ Marcus grinned. _Nice to see that you're still okay, buddy. Now…what the heck is going on? The last thing I remember is…Agumon dark digivolving. My DNA went wild or something… Corrupted? Is that what happened? It all started after Agumon, Urocyomon, and me wound up in that Dark Ocean place._

"Urocyomon…" he whispered before looking around furtively. "Where are you? Urocyomon!"

No sign of the digital fox could be seen. All that he saw was desert and the strange wall of fire with the eerie darkness creeping out from underneath it. Furrowing his brow, Marcus struggled to recall events from before he became unconscious.

_We were fighting digimon in the Dark Area…we were ambushed by them, and then the world did some kind of weird color flip. I activated my DNA and Agumon went wild…and then we were fighting other digimon._

"This isn't good," Marcus said to himself. _Urocyomon's missing, and something seems to be wrong with my DNA. I'm not even sure where to begin. I don't even know what this weird wall of fire is. What is it?_

Reaching out, Marcus tapped one finger against it, and a spark of electricity made him pull back reflexively. But…for an instant he could have sworn that he was being _pulled _by some great force.

_I wonder if Urocyomon got pulled through this,_ he wondered. _He could be in the Dark Ocean. Those shadow guys seemed like they were interested in him after all…_

Marcus narrowed his eyes. Yes. Now that he thought about it, the shadowy creatures that they encountered were _definitely _interested in Urocyomon, even going so far as to call him a 'catch'. Could they have taken him? And if so, where could they have gone?

_Does this wall have anything to do with it?_ he wondered. Shifting his grip on Agumon, he took a deep breath…

…Only to be stopped as a yellow ribbon wrapped itself around his waist and yanked him backwards.

"Well, well, well," crowed LoadKnightmon as Marcus and Agumon hit the ground hard. "It seems we have an intruder that needs to be dealt with…wouldn't you say RhodoKnightmon?"

RhodoKnightmon folded her arms together and nodded in agreement.

"Indeed. I think it's time that we taught this intruder a lesson he'll never forget."

Marcus growled in exasperation. For the first time he could remember, he was _not_ looking forward to this. However, he knew there was no way around it. It was fighting time again…

* * *

"Hellooo," sang Suzie as Henry opened up his door. The older boy stared at her for a second, taking a moment to wake up before replying.

"She's awfully loud," observed Terriermon with a yawn. Henry found himself nodding in agreement before catching himself.

"You're in an…exuberant mood this morning."

"I've got every reason to be," replied Suzie happily, placing her fists on her hips proudly. "I don't have school today."

"That's not the sort of attitude I would expect from someone who tried to keep their school from being destroyed," noted Terriermon, glancing over at Henry. "What went wrong with your upbringing?"

"Terriermon…" Henry sighed and shook his head. "I wouldn't go around thinking that you have a free day, Suzie. You have a meeting with Mr. Takahashi today, don't you?"

"Don't forget that you have homework to do over vacation too," called out Mayumi from over in the kitchen.

"Thanks for reminding me," pouted Suzie. "I don't see why I have to see that guy. I feel fine, and Lopmon is doing great too."

"It's just a precaution," said Henry, heading down the hallway. "It _is_ important for Hypnos to know if there's anything that they need to look out for with Tamers, and you have been under stress lately."

"I know…but…" Suzie folded her arms across her chest and shook her head. "Oh, never mind. So…how was it last night?"

"How was what?"

"Earth to Henry," chided Terriermon. "She's talking about your date with Noriko. You know, I'm kind of curious too. Lumemon and I backed out to give you guys your privacy…"

"You mean how you stalked us?"

"We stayed at a discreet distance. Momentai! Besides, it was just in case a digimon showed up, which was _your _suggestion by the way."

"And neither of you are telling me what happened," observed Suzie, feeling a little irritated. "Come on… I _finally_ get you and Noriko to go out on a date, and you won't tell me what you did? At least tell me you didn't go to a computer store or something."

"They did. I saw that much at least." Terriermon grinned at Henry. "You _really_ know how to show a girl a good time."

Henry groaned as he entered the kitchen and began to root through the cupboards for breakfast. At the stove, Mayumi offered her children a playful frown.

"Now, now, Suzie. Leave your older brother alone. He's entitled to his privacy."

"But I got them together! I think I should at least know how it went!"

"Just leave them alone, Suzie," said Mayumi, giving Henry an approving look. "They've earned their privacy." A smile spread across Mayumi's face just then. "So…how did your date go?"

"Mom, didn't you just get done saying that Noriko and I earned our privacy?"

"Ohhh…what mother can resist being curious? You're no longer my cute little boy after all. You're turning into quite the handsome young man, and you've got a nice, pretty girl too. I like Noriko, and I won't have you mistreating her. Speaking of which…shouldn't you have taken her somewhere other than a computer store?"

"I rest my case," said Suzie triumphantly.

Henry groaned and shook his head. "It's not like that's the only thing we did, Mom. Although…"

"…Although?" Mayumi prodded, raising an eyebrow.

"…Well…I could use some advice on things to do. I'm really not used to the whole dating scene."

Mayumi smiled. "I can help you with that."

"Thanks Mom."

"Just remember to have her back by eight and always use a condom."

_"Terriermon!"_ Henry exclaimed, going red in the face. The long eared rabbit digimon giggled mischievously.

"Just trying to head you off, Henry. I don't suppose you can actually listen to my advice this time before you have a bunch of little Henry's popping out all over the place."

Henry clasped one hand over his face, wondering just what he must have done in a previous life to deserve this kind of torment. Giving the teen a sympathetic smile, she ruffled his hair.

"Well…you're at that age now."

"You mean the age where he's supposed to ignore our advice?"

"That too. Hmmm…" Mayumi's smile became a teasing one now. "I wonder if it's about time I explained the birds and the bees to him…"

Never before in his life did Henry wish for a digimon attack then now.

* * *

Strings of colored light ran through Norn's hands. Her eyes were distant looking as the light twisted themselves around her fingers. After a few moments, she nodded.

"Program construction complete."

"Glad to hear that, Norn," came the voice of Prometheus as he materialized behind her. Turning, Norn's eyes met his.

"I take it that your mission was a success?"

"Stirred up a hornet's nest," said Prometheus. A grin spread across his face just then. "I also found a Demon Lord in GranDracmon's castle. That works in my favor as I recall. Just in time too, though perhaps not…_quite_ fast enough." Prometheus scowled. "GranDracmon is going to be siccing his minions on us faster than I expected. I'm afraid that we're going to have to step up our time table."

Norn frowned. "I thought you said that time was important—as in _not_ rushing things."

Prometheus shrugged and held out his hands helplessly. "Things change, Norn. Better to go when the wind blows sometimes. I have planned for this eventuality too. I should point out that Suzie isn't the goal. She's just a test. From her I can sink my teeth into the real targets and get things moving in the right direction."

Norn's frown deepened.

"Given your rather lofty goals, I don't see how stirring up GranDracmon this early in the game can help you."

"Provides a distraction, and an added bonus once things get out of hand and GranDracmon is forced to intervene directly. Hopefully by then, the plan will be close to completion. Until then…you know what I expect."

Norn nodded. _Follow your orders._

"Exactly," said Prometheus, hearing her thoughts. A frown furrowed across his face. "Still, it is risky, so we're going to have to approach this very carefully." Raising one hand, a globe of light materialized. The light shifted and began to take shape until the face of a young boy appeared within it. "This is the boy who has been troubling young Suzie. He is perfect for the job at hand. You know what is needed." Prometheus looked over at Norn and the ball of light winked out of existence. Prometheus pocketed his hand and stood in a casual manner, his hair blowing across his face as a gust of wind swept over him.

"Push her, Norn. All the way."

"And what about Maelstrom?"

"He'll be working on her in his own way. Don't strike until the signal is given of course. In this case, timing is everything, and the right time…is…well, that's the question, isn't it?"

A gleam appeared in Prometheus' eyes, and Norn felt herself unconsciously shudder at it.

"There can be no way to determine the 'right time' when our time frame is so short. My attention is already taken up with these programs you're having me devise, so I am unable to search for everything that you require for this stage of your operations."

Prometheus chuckled.

"Oh, don't worry. The digital world has a way of giving you exactly what you need, when you need it the most. Faith may answer or it may not, but patience has the tendency of awarding big dividends. And with the state the digital world is in, I feel that we can expect that moment very, very shortly."

* * *

A/N: Shorter than usual chapter, but I did want to make my schedule for updates. Fortunately, all the important scenes that I wanted to cover in this chapter, I covered, so all is well.

Prometheus' words at the end are something that I've been thinking about lately. We've seen only a few instances of something going on in the digital world…something that's been viewed as bad but aside from the Dark Ocean (which until recently has been merely background to the digital world and not directly causing chaos), and at least a couple bio-emergences of unusually powerful digimon, we haven't seen much evidence of what the problems are (which was not helped by the fact that the Knighthood group exterminated an entire sector and is actively working to 'keep things quiet there'). So, in the upcoming chapters, we'll be seeing a bit more of that while advancing the plot.

'Till next chapter.

-Crazyeight

* * *

7


	27. Help me find

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.

Revival

Chapter: 27/ Help me find…

Takato lay in bed, a small smile on his face. Shifting beneath the covers, he made a low, happy, relaxed sound that indicated supreme comfort.

Alas, that comfort was not long to last.

A hand reached up over his bunk and grabbed at his bed sheets, pulling them off him in one swift motion. Takato snapped awake, startled by the rather abrupt interruption. Blinking blearily he looked around his room, first finding Guilmon looking up at him with his big, golden eyes, and then at his mother, who promptly folded up his blanket and was giving him a hard look.

"Uh…hi?" came Takato's intelligent answer before he glanced over at his alarm clock. Realization suddenly dawned and in the next second Takato was scrambling down the ladder, nearly slipping off in the process.

"It's about time you woke up," mused Mei, placing her son's folded up blanket on top of his bed. "Guilmon tried to wake you up on his own, but when you wouldn't get up he came to me rather than break your bed again"

"Ohhh…man!" Takato exclaimed, rushing about his room, grabbing his school uniform and his book bag. "I am going to be _late!"_

"You will be late if you don't calm…" Mei's words ceased as Takato flew by her and towards the direction of the bathroom. "…down," she finished, shaking her head. "Now you're going to run out of the house with your shirt on backwards."

Mei sighed. _That was what I get for having such a scatterbrained, rambunctious son, though at least he does better nowadays._

"Guilmon. Make sure he doesn't spend too much time in the park today, okay?" asked Mei, turning to the crimson dinosaur. "Get him straight to school even if you have to carry him there yourself."

"Uh-huh!" Guilmon nodded his head vigorously. "Don't worry. I will."

"That's a good mon," smiled Mei, giving the digimon a gentle scratching behind his ears. Guilmon nuzzled the Matsuki matriarch before bounding off after his partner.

* * *

With a speed that would have left Renamon amazed, Takato raced down the stairwell of his home, and while he wasn't fully kempt he was at least dressed for school. He pushed his feet into his shoes and was already aiming for the door before Guilmon thundered his way after him.

"Hi Dad! Bye Dad! I'm off to school now!" called out Takato, waving one hand over his shoulder as he exited the bakery. Takehiro nodded his head at him with an amused expression before turning to his customer.

"Sorry for the noise," he apologized, bagging a piece of Guilmon bread. "Kids these days."

Prometheus nodded in agreement and smiled warmly. "Yeah. They can be quite the handful, can they? Especially when they get into those teenage years."

Takehiro laughed aloud and rang him up. "Okay, that'll be 452 yen. Thank you for your patronage and have a nice day."

* * *

Prometheus stepped out into the day air and opened his bag of freshly baked Guilmon bread. He inhaled its wonderful smell, feeling his mouth salivate at it. He knew that he didn't need to eat, but he found doing so was rather comforting for him.

_For a bakery that up until three years ago had been very smalltime, this family really knows their craft. And that's what makes it worth coming here so often._

Glancing to the side, his gaze followed the figures of Guilmon and Takato as they blew their way down the city streets. Prometheus smiled kindly at them and began to walk in their direction, already picking at the Guilmon bread in his bag and popping pieces of it in his mouth.

_I wonder what's going through his mind right now,_ he thought to himself. _He's so different from his other self, and yet…so very similar. Always concerned for others, puts up with far more than he should, and through it all keeps a happy, open heart. It's amazing that his other self managed to survive all those years in the Dark Area with no partner to back him._

He tossed another piece of Guilmon bread into his mouth and chewed thoughtfully. The Tamers were something of a conundrum to him, and he found them fascinating to study._ Of all the human groups I have born witness to, this group is by far the oddest. Full of contradictions and conflicts, and yet most of what ties them together were forged through the conflicts they had with each other and themselves. Well…_ Prometheus licked his fingers of the cinnamon that stuck to them. _It's not as though that any other human group that aided the digital world hasn't had its fair share of problems with themselves and each other. This group though…they're different in that none of them were chosen on purpose—at least on the surface—and yet somehow manage to fit together so well._

Prometheus scowled into his bag, finding that he didn't have much remaining of his meal. Scrounging it up he prepared to devour it when he saw something move out of the corner of his eye. Looking to the side he saw a tiny, white colored digimon with wide, green eyes and large ears poofing out from his head like tiny wings.

_Oh geez… _Prometheus shook his head and smiled at the tiny creampuff of a digimon. Pausing he walked over to where the digimon stood and tossed him the final piece of his Guilmon bread.

"Here. You look like you could use this more than me."

Calumon looked up at Prometheus with wide eyes.

"For me?"

Prometheus nodded and tipped him a salute. "Take care of yourself, creampuff." And with that he disappeared into the crowd, Calumon watching him.

"Wow… What a nice person."

Smiling, Calumon looked down at his prize and swiftly devoured it all in one go, rubbing his belly gratefully.

* * *

"Takato," whined Guilmon as his pace slackened behind his partner. "Slow down…"

"Sorry, boy," replied Takato, giving his partner an apologetic look. "But I am kind of in a hurry."

"I know. But we've still got time. Can't we take it a little bit easy on our way to the park?"

"You need to go on a diet again," frowned Takato.

"Takato!"

Takato chuckled a little. "Well, you do weigh a lot, boy. And don't think I didn't notice that Mom still remembers how you broke my bed trying to wake me up that one time. You didn't even jump or anything. If you keep eating the way you do, wild digimon will have destroyed the city before we can even get to the digital field."

_"Pretty much what I've been telling you for years,"_ chuckled a familiar voice inside his mind. Takato found himself blushing lightly at it.

"'Morning, Rika."

"Hi!" Guilmon chirped.

"Guilmon says 'hi' by the way…"

_"I know, I heard Gogglehead."_ A moment of silence passed, during which Takato felt a strong sense of happiness flowing from Rika's side of the bond. It came on him like a flowing river, and for the strangest reason the image of Sakura blossoms appeared in his mind.

"Um…so…" Takato began awkwardly, trying to start up a conversation. Rika chuckled again.

_"Just thought I'd check through the blinds to see how you were doing. You're late you know."_

"Yeah." Takato rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment. "I forgot to set my alarm clock and overslept. Guilmon had to fetch Mom to wake me up." Takato hesitated for a moment. "Um…Rika? What…um…are you doing anything after school today?"

Rika's voice chuckled again. _"I'll let you know around lunch time. I'm sure I can fit some time in. Although…you might want to think about it yourself. Final exams are coming up for you, right? I know that you can't spare as much time as I can."_

"Don't you get more homework than me though?"

_"What can I say? I'm just that good. Anyway, I've got to go to school before _I'm_ late, so I'll talk to you around lunchtime, okay?"_

Takato nodded. "Right. See you then."

_"Bye."_

Takato felt as though a curtain rose up in his mind, and a sensation of giddiness tickled his body. Memories of yesterday flowed through his mind, and one hand rose to his lips. A part of him still wondered if it had all been a dream. After all, he was the group's resident 'Dreamer' after all, having dreamt about Rika before he ever met her and created Guilmon before he became a reality. But the reality stood as it was. Both Rika and Guilmon were real, just as Rika's kissing him was a reality.

_It's not like this is the first time she's kissed me,_ he thought, feeling a little bit flustered and hot under his collar. _It's just…the first time in three years, and I'm finally acknowledging her feelings._

Still, he had to admit that it was a bit embarrassing that she kissed him just to shut him up.

In some ways, he wasn't at all sure how he should be reacting. What sort of things happened to people when they were in a relationship? Was it merely an extension of what they did when they were just friends, or did they do something more? All the shows he watched, books and manga he read, seemed to indicate that things like going out to dinner and movies were the path to take but how did that change things? Didn't they do that already? Of course they trained alone together, but that wasn't quite the same…was it? There had been a couple of times when he and Rika did go to see a movie, just the two of them. Circumstances had put them in that situation though, and it took up until now for their relationship to change enough to resume doing so without such 'aids'.

"Takato?"

Blinking, Takato turned towards Guilmon to find him cocking his head at him questioningly.

"Uh…yeah, boy?"

"Are we going to be moving again soon? Because now you're really going to be late…"

Realizing that he had come to a halt during his conversation with Rika, Takato broke into a run, panic welling up inside his chest.

"Awww…_nuts!"_

_

* * *

_

"So where do we start with this intruder?" asked RhodoKnightmon, leering over Marcus. Her sash blades moved like cobras preparing to strike. "I do recall that we are not allowed to harm any humans…"

"Norn contacted us and rescinded those orders," said LoadKnightmon. "We can do with this human as we please."

"Hmmm…yes, that's right. Then, if I may be so bold, I would like to find out what is so special about a human that would cause a digimon to bond to them. The _last_ human we checked out merely bled some red fluid. I would like to see if there's anything more than that."

LoadKnightmon chuckled. "Be my guest. Our orders are to push the humans—_any_ humans we find—as hard as we can and to show no mercy."

"Very well." RhodoKnightmon took hold of one of her yellow ribbons and it became rigid. Light gleamed along its edge. To Marcus, it looked very sharp. "Now…where should we begin? A hand? A foot? Or a leg? Perhaps the leg so that he can't escape."

Marcus grimaced and struggled against his bonds, only to grunt slightly as the ribbon binding him tightened around his waist.

_Who are these guys?_ he wondered. _They just came out of nowhere, acting like they're in charge of defending this place. Not really the nicest guards I ever met either. Kurata's henchmen were better than this. _

"Hey," growled Marcus. "Do whatever you want to me, but leave Agumon out of this! He's got nothing to do with you guys!"

"I beg to differ," said LoadKnightmon, sauntering over to where the limp form of Agumon lay prostrate on the ground. Picking him up, LoadKnightmon brought him to eye level and looked at him directly in the face. "The moment he appeared in this land, his life was forfeit. _All_ who come here are to be exterminated on orders of Mistress Norn—Lord Yggdrasil. _No_ exceptions."

"Yggdrasil?" Marcus raised an eyebrow. "And here I thought he was going to wait and see how things turned out between humans and digimon. I should have known that crazy computer would still be trying to pick a fight."

RhodoKnightmon turned towards LoadKnightmon, a questioning tilt to her head before looking back at Marcus. "You know our master?"

"Forget the human," snapped LoadKnightmon. "Either toy with him or destroy him! We have no time for distra—!"

LoadKnightmon's words were abruptly cut off as he noticed Agumon's face taking on a red discoloration. Tilting his head to one side, he looked at the creature questioningly.

"What…?"

**"Spitfire!" **

Throwing open his jaws, Agumon unleashed a torrent of flame that slammed into LoadKnightmon's face. The Mega fell back, letting go of Agumon as he did so and howled in pain. Agumon didn't let up however. Immediately upon landing, he sprayed several shots of _Pepper Breath_ on the knight, aiming towards the scars that decorated his armored helm, hoping to find a weak spot. LoadKnightmon roared again as pain assaulted his senses, and brought one gauntlet up to protect his damaged helmet.

"Nice work Agumon," said Marcus, a grin forming on his face. "Now it's my turn."

Orange sparks of data flared around his body and expanded. Flexing his muscles, the orange fire spread and shattered RhodoKnightmon's binding ribbon. Lunging forward, the street fighter brought his fist to bear and slammed it home against the knight just as she brought her Pile Bunker shield to bear. Much to RhodoKnightmon's surprise, the impact of the human's fist sent her flying backwards, and a large crack split across her shield.

"That'll teach you to mess with us!" shouted Marcus triumphantly. "Are you ready Agumon?"

"You got it, boss!" replied the orange scaled dinosaur, getting into a defensive crouch. Marcus nodded and looked down at the orange flame that had now receded to his fist.

_It looks normal again,_ he thought, worry evaporating as he scrutinized the flame carefully.

"All right. Let's do this." Marcus pulled out his black and orange colored digivice and presented it towards his partner. Rapidly whipping blazing his hand around, Marcus brought it slamming down onto the digivice, and a blinding light shot forth from it. **"DNA Charge! Over drive!"**

Light burst free from Agumon's body and his body began to lengthen and change. Armor materialized over him, and metallic wings drew forth from his back. Marcus smiled, seeing the familiar form of his friend's Mega level. _Looks like everything's going to be all ri— Aaagh!_

Marcus nearly collapsed to his feet as an eerie blackness suddenly overwhelmed the screen on his digivice, intermingling with the light that shone from Agumon's digivolution. He could hear Agumon's surprised squawk as his change began to suddenly alter, becoming darker and tone.

**"Agumon, Double Dark Warp Digivolve tooo…ShineGreymon!"  
**Grey wings burst free from their data shell and azure armor replacing the red armor that had once been so dominant materialized. A crimson glow made itself known in the Mega's eyes as he towered over RhodoKnightmon and LoadKnightmon. The two digimon took a cautious step backwards.

"A dark digivolution," growled LoadKnightmon. "These humans will do anything to satisfy their craving for power, won't they?"

"Careful LoadKnightmon," warned RhodoKnightmon. "With your injuries, you'll be vulnerable to this digimon. He has Viral capabilities…"

"I _know_ what he's capable of!" snapped LoadKnightmon. He grabbed a ribbon and immediately it stiffened into a blade. "I'll be sure to keep it in mind while I cut him to pieces."

LoadKnightmon dashed forward and lashed outwards with his sash blades, only to have his attack caught by ShineGreymon. The viral Mega promptly reeled him in and drove his armored fist into his damaged helm, causing a series of cracks to spread outwards from the claw marks left by his earlier fight with Lilithmon. LoadKnightmon howled in pain, clawing at his injury, and tried to pull away, only to be pulled back towards ShineGreymon. This time the Mega level dragon slammed him down into the ground and mercilessly buried his fist into him, causing the ground to shake and heave beneath the two combatants.

_"Stop it!"_ shouted RhodoKnightmon as she leapt forward. **"Spiral Masquerade!"**

RhodoKnightmon lashed out with a flurry of swift slashes with her body sashes. Sparks flew as they struck against ShineGreymon's armor, but not a single slice managed to damage their target. Turning upwards, ShineGreymon locked eyes with RhodoKnightmon. They glowed red.

_Oh no…_

**"GeoGrey Sword!"**

Thrusting his arm into the ground, a wall of black fire leapt up around ShineGreymon, and within seconds he tore a massive, black sword from the ground. Slashing it to the side, he sent a wave of dark energy surging towards RhodoKnightmon where it impacted her with tremendous force, shredding her sash blades. RhodoKnightmon cried out in pain but managed to stand her ground.

"You _dare_ raise your fists against the _Knighthood?"_ she shouted angrily. "Do you have _any_ idea who it is you're _dealing with?"_

Not waiting for an answer, RhodoKnightmon dove towards ShineGreymon and slammed into him, knocking him backwards. She felt grim satisfaction at the display of strength, but only for a moment as the sound of ShineGreymon laughing reached her ears.

"Wha…?"

**"Glorious Burst!"**

Darkness accumulated around ShineGreymon's wings as he spread them apart, and shot outwards. RhodoKnightmon screamed as she felt her armor shatter and crack around her body, hurling her backwards into the desert ground. She impacted the earth harshly, and lay there twitching, her body blurring as it began to destabilize.

"RhodoKnightmon!" shouted LoadKnightmon as he surged to his feet. He was clutching his damaged helm, growling in pain as a dark green liquid hissed its way past his fingers and corroded his armor wherever it touched. He spun towards ShineGreymon angrily.

"You will pay for this," he hissed. "You will _pay!"_

LoadKnightmon again dashed forward, but this time he sent out a net of energy that immediately wrapped around ShineGreymon's body. As ShineGreymon struggled to free himself of the net, LoadKnightmon lay into him with everything he had, striking his face repeatedly with his Pile Bunker shield. ShineGreymon fell back, trying to escape the carnage, but LoadKnightmon's speed ensured that he kept up with him.

Marcus, in the meantime, was on his knees, breathing heavily. His body was one giant knot of roaring emotions and his stomach threatened to empty itself on the desert floor.

_Wha…what's happening to me?_ he wondered, feeling a torrent of rage splash through his mind like water._ My DNA…it looked fine earlier…so…so what's going on? What did that other place _do_ to me?_

"F-Foolish…human…" chuckled RhodoKnightmon's voice from off to the side. Nearly heaving, Marcus looked over in the direction of the fallen knight. Her armored body was a mess of oozing, black liquids and cracks, but she laughed at him as though she were observing the universes greatest joke. "Did you think this power would come to you without repercussions? Dark…digivolution is not a force to be played with. It holds promises much pain and…difficulty for its user… I suspect that…the same would be true…perhaps more so…for the human partner as well."

Rolling to one side, RhodoKnightmon forced herself to her feet and picked up one of her ruined sash blades. It hung there limply in her hand. She frowned at it beneath her helm, and it swung upwards briefly, trying to follow her unspoken command to become her blade, but a second later it fell down once again. Shaking her head, RhodoKnightmon tossed the ribbon to the side and began to stagger in the direction of Marcus.

"Oh well. I…don't need…that to finish you off. Not in the condition you are in. Guess I'll get to finish my little experiment…after all. Tell me something." RhodoKnightmon came to a stop before Marcus. "What would happen to the digimon partner…if the human half of the equation…is deleted?"

Marcus' eyes went wide as all of a sudden, for the first time that he could remember, he realized that death seemed to be a certainty for him.

_No… NO!_

RhodoKnightmon reached forth to grab Marcus by the throat. Before she could close the distance however, a great roar split across the sky, and ShineGreymon burst free from his reigns in a blast of black flame. With brutal strength, he slapped LoadKnightmon to the side and focused his attention on RhodoKnightmon. Black fire lapped at the edges of his GeoGrey Sword and he charged forwards, his eyes full of murderous intent. Before RhodoKnightmon could even react, ShineGreymon's sword clove through her waist. She stood there for a moment, completely shocked by what happened before her legs toppled beneath her, followed rapidly by her upper body.

_"AAAGGGHHH!"_ RhodoKnightmon's fingers clawed the ground as she cried out. Trying desperately to shut out the pain, she looked at Marcus, and again began to reach for him…

…only to have ShineGreymon's sword come slamming down, imbedding itself between her shoulder and her raised arm. The limb promptly fell off and burst into shards of data.

"You didn't think you would have it that easy, did you?" hissed ShineGreymon, raising his sword for the final blow.

"Agumon…" Marcus whispered. There was something in his partner's voice and the way he was acting that sent a shiver down his back. Steeling himself, he got to his feet and spoke again in a firmer voice, "Agumon."

ShineGreymon's blade rose and dipped slightly in the air, taking aim.

_He's not listening…_

"Agumon!" bellowed Marcus. "Stop! She's beaten! Stop it!"

**"GeoGrey…"**

Black fire flared around Marcus' fist. Once again, his body threatened to lock up on him, but he pushed himself forward. If Agumon wasn't going to listen to him he would _make him_ the old fashioned way.

With his fists.

Shouting a battle cry and ignoring the pain in his body, Marcus leapt forth, fist pulled back to deflect ShineGreymon's blow as it began to dip downwards, beginning its descent towards the crawling, barely alive RhodoKnightmon. The tip of ShineGreymon's blade gleamed in the desert light…

…And then, an obstruction.

The fire around Marcus' fist blew out as it impacted with an open palm belonging to a crystalline, female figure. Marcus' eyes shot open wide as he recognized it.

"King Drasil!"

"Not anymore," replied the figure, shaking her head. "Now I am called Norn." Turning upwards towards ShineGreymon, who was now barely being held in check by a series of green vines that sprouted forth from a familiar, floating suit of mechanical armor, her crystalline appearance melted, becoming that of a human girl wearing what appeared at first glance to be a maid uniform. Wings sprouted forth from her back, and she nodded towards the two combatants. "I felt my soldiers were in danger and moved to intervene. Marcus. It is…good to see you again, though it's not quite the sort of reunion I had intended."

"What's going on here?" demanded Marcus hotly, struggling to pull his hand free from Norn's grasp and failing. Her grip was unnervingly powerful. "Why did your digimon attack us?"

"My orders…unfortunately. I had hoped to spare humans from this, but…another force is preventing me from doing so." Norn fixed Marcus with a reflective look before suddenly tightening her grip. Marcus let loose a cry as pain tore through his fist from the force Norn was exerting on him. He could hear bones making popping sounds and against his will, his knees touched the ground.

"I am…very…_very…_sorry…" said Norn, hitching a sob. Lines of light were now running the length of her face and drawing up into her eyes. Her irises were now no longer visible, hidden by shimmering swirls of color. Despite this, tears ran down her cheeks and instinctively she pulled Marcus in close for a hug, all the while tightening her grip on his fist.

_ "I'm sorry,"_ she whispered.

Shock and pain overwhelmed Marcus' mind as he found himself no longer able to fight back. The digital god—or now more accurately, _goddess—_was _crushing_ his hand! And he could do nothing to stop her from doing it! He was helpless. He…

Marcus blinked as something wet—Norn's tears—touched his face. Marcus jerked reflexively, and suddenly an overpowering surge of emotion ripped through his mind. Black fire again flared around his body and Marcus threw himself backwards, ripping his hand free from Norn's grasp. Breathing heavily, Marcus fought against the surge of energy that roared through him. Try as he might, he found himself unable to properly contain it, and the fire rose upwards, becoming as a pillar before striking against ShineGreymon's imprisoned body. Jets of black flame roared forth from its back, encompassing and devouring its metal wings. The fire burned away the vines that imprisoned him, and ShineGreymon immediately summoned two blazing swords. Seeing this, Norn took a step back and looked at the viral Mega, blinking back tears. Her hands were drawn into fists and were shaking. She bit her lip painfully, as though she were fighting something deep inside her.

"Please…" she whispered. "…Stop me."

ShineGreymon lunged forward with a powerful roar. Marcus looked at Norn as the black fire around him died down a little. For a moment, he didn't see the digital goddess that he had fought and so recently left his right hand a pulsating mess of pain. Instead, he saw a helpless girl asking for help.

_Legs feel like lead… My fists feel even worse. But…I can't let her get hurt…_

With whatever strength was left within him, Marcus threw himself towards ShineGreymon. Fire again erupted around his body and he slammed into his partner with as much force as he could muster. The fire detonated upon impact and the two rolled to the ground. ShineGreymon rose with a snarl, glaring at his partner angrily. His fiery sword flared and he stomped towards Marcus. The teen lay on the ground, thoroughly exhausted now.

"Is this how it ends, partner?" he murmured, too tired now to stand and face his fate like he always intended to. "Just like it began?" A humorous, ironic smile crossed his face just then. "…Good times…"

It was in that moment that a column of pink light swept over the pair, and a second later, the two were gone.

Norn stared at the empty spot where ShineGreymon and Marcus had been, blinking back tears as the lines of light that shone on her body died down, returning control to her.

_Of all the things Prometheus has done to me,_ she thought bitterly. _This has to be the worst of them all. To force me to destroy things that I would give anything to protect…_

In the quiet of the digital desert, witnessed only by the members of her Knighthood, Norn wept.

* * *

* * *

A/N: When I began planning out this chapter, only two things came to me. Takato waking up and dealing with his newfound relationship with Rika, and Marcus' fight with the Knighthood. Norn's inclusion wasn't initially planned, and I wasn't entirely sure where to go with Marcus as far as the conclusion of the fight went, though as I thought about it, this works out fine since now I have some room to explore the new face of the digital world. Not so fun stuff (for them anyway), and it detracts somewhat from the first part of the chapter, leaving me to wonder why they're even side by side in the first place. However, Prometheus' presence kind of helps with that, and it's setting the stage for him to get updated on what's going on in the real world (some of which he probably won't be too thrilled about, but more on that in future installments).

'Till next chapter. :P

-Crazyeight

* * *

9


	28. Setting Off into the Abyss

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.

Revival

Chapter: 28/ Setting off into the Abyss

Within the darkness of GranDracmon's castle, Takato shifted in his bed, his face illuminated by the still flickering fire in his room. The shadows off in one corner moved, and a dark figure swept into view until it stood over Takato. Over by the fireplace, Takato's companion, the reptile-like shade that served as his cloak, stirred, as though sensing the dark figure's presence, but soon quieted. The dark figure eyed it for a moment before settling down onto Takato's bed. Bending over his sleeping figure, it drew closer towards his face. Fangs gleamed in the light of the fire and long strands of crimson hair tickled the boy's cheeks, causing his expression to change slightly. A small smile drew across his lips and the figure moved towards them, catching them in its own.

Takato's eyes flew open as he felt pain nip at his mouth, and he attempted to wrench himself away, only to find himself being held in place by the strength of the figure he found on top of him. Panicking, he pushed against it, but to no avail. The figure's strength was enormous! It…

A blood red eye balefully looked into his own and Takato froze in recognition. He felt the strangest sensation of a smirk drawing across the face belonging to the figure a moment before her lips left his. LadyDevimon sat up, and Takato moved to back away from her, only to freeze once again as she raised one clawed hand and two crimson nails shot out and skewered into his pillow, trapping his neck between their razor-sharp edges. Not batting an eye, but breathing heavily nonetheless, Takato swallowed.

"This…isn't your normal wakeup call," Takato said carefully, waiting for the demon to make her move. LadyDevimon chuckled.

"And _you_ haven't overslept since your first day here," she replied. "We have a job to take care of, remember? Get up."

Retracting her nails, she grabbed the teen roughly, threw back his covers, and hauled him out of bed. Takato stumbled when she let him go, but he maintained his balance, eyeing her warily. Tossing her head, LadyDevimon sneered at him.

"Don't make us wait up for you," she snarled. Stepping backwards, the demonic digimon faded into the background, disappearing from his room. Takato waited for a few seconds, his mind testing the proverbial waters to make sure that her presence was entirely gone before allowing his shoulders to slump exhaustedly.

_I really wish she wouldn't do this,_ he thought, dabbing at his lower lip, finding it swelling a little from her 'playful' bite. _She didn't use to when we first met, but these past few months she's been getting more and more aggressive. It's…kind of unsettling._

Takato drew one hand into a tight fist, pondering the incident for a moment before dismissing it…for now.

"Here, boy," he spoke to the quiet of the room, and all at once his shadowy companion got up and transformed from its reptilian shape into a flowing stream of darkness that wrapped around his body. This time, it did not appear as a cloak, but instead settled itself into something a bit more informal, shaping itself into a long sleeved, black hoodie with pants, and shoes. Takato looked himself over, somewhat unhappy with the choice of color, but as his 'companion' seemed to lack the ability to do anything other than black, he had long since given up on it. Whistling to himself in an attempt to calm his nerves, Takato took one last look around to see if there was anything he needed. Grabbing a knapsack, he went over to his desk and grabbed one of the many notebooks that lay on it, along with a small case, and jammed them. After a moment of thought, he added another notebook, just to be on the safe side.

_Not much else,_ he thought, closing up the bag. He didn't own much aside from the notebooks and the case, and the Dark Area lacked the things he used to enjoy in the real world—none of which he could take with him anyway, not for a mission like this. And try as he might, he could never get into any of the books GranDracmon read.

With that settled, Takato exited the room, closing it with a low click. The fire lit in the fireplace blew out of existence a second later, plunging the room into complete and utter darkness.

* * *

Takato came to a halt outside of GranDracmon's chambers and raised one hand to knock on the door. Before he could even do so, the doors pulled open and LadyDevimon stepped forward, glaring angrily ahead of her before looking down. Upon seeing him, her expression turned into one of disgust and she stepped aside.

"It's about time," she growled. "Get in."

_She's mad,_ thought Takato, stepping into the chamber. GranDracmon was again seated in his usual manner, leafing through a book. Upon seeing the boy, a kindly smile drew upon the Mega level demon's face and he closed the book with a snap.

"Good to see that you've made it, Takato," GranDracmon said, nodding to him. "I trust that LadyDevimon's ministrations are not too hard on you?"

As GranDracmon said those words, he shot a sharp look at LadyDevimon, who stared defiantly back at him, though she stood rigid and at attention. Takato's shoulders shook as he laughed nervously, having an idea that LadyDevimon would have further words with him later about his tardiness.

"Well…ah…it was…_different…"_

"So I see," replied GranDracmon, looking him over before glancing back over at LadyDevimon. The female digimon continued to glare at him, and the massive demon leaned back casually, setting his book down. "Today the two of you, and the human Kurata, will be setting out on your investigation of the entity that attacked yesterday."

"Where do you want us to start?" asked Takato. "I mean, the digital world is a big place, and back when I was alive…" Takato paused on the memory of his friends before continuing. "…we would end up getting lost more often than not. I don't think this guy is going to be that easy for us to find."

"Perhaps," GranDracmon said, nodding in agreement. "And the digital world changes as time goes on. Most of the powers are gone or have shifted. The Sovereigns, when I last heard, were deleted three years ago during a massive invasion of undead digimon—a result of this 'Project X' that you mentioned when you first came to us." GranDracmon massaged his chin thoughtfully. "But there are some of the old powers left over who might know something. I shall teleport you to a location where you may begin your search. Seek out the 'Whirlwind General'."

"The…Whirlwind General…" mused Takato. "How would he be able to help?"

"You could say that he was once close to this sort of thing. He knows things that few others do, and I believe that he'll at least be amiable to you, due to your nature."

"All right," Takato nodded. "I understand."

"Good. Are you ready to depart?"

"Actually…" Takato scratched his chin. "There is still something that I need to do. I wanted to do it earlier, but I kind of overslept…"

_"Kind of_ doesn't begin to describe it," sneered LadyDevimon, but a raised hand from GranDracmon silenced her.

"Very well," the demon overlord replied. "Finish making your preparations. I shall refine the targeting seal so that I can direct you to where you need to go more accurately. Please make sure that you do not dally, young Takato."

"Don't worry. This won't take long."

Takato turned and began to head out the door, and LadyDevimon moved to join him.

"LadyDevimon," GranDracmon replied, causing her to halt. Takato did likewise, but GranDracmon shook his head at him. "My apologies. But I must speak with her alone." With a wave of his hand, the doors to GranDracmon's chambers closed, leaving Takato standing outside, alone. Frowning slightly, Takato waited a moment before continuing onwards.

* * *

LadyDevimon stared at the closed door, her eyes narrowed and her claws flexing. "Lord GranDracmon…" she began, but again the digimon raised one hand, indicating for her to be silent.

"This won't take very long, my dear. In fact, you'll be able to rejoin your comrade very shortly. However, I feel that I need to remind you about what we talked about before Takato entered…"

LadyDevimon's claws paused in their flexing before drawing up into a tight fist. LadyDevimon made a disgusted sound.

"Yes. I understand."

"Of course you do," said GranDracmon, picking up his book and flipping through the pages. "That is precisely why I have to remind you. It is sometimes best to err on the side of caution, my dear. You can be _too_ passionate at times. That is why you fell, is it not?"

LadyDevimon did not reply, and GranDracmon waved a hand, causing the doors to his chamber to reopen.

"You may go now. Keep Takato out of trouble…and yourself as well. I would so hate to lose the both of you when life was starting to become interesting again."

LadyDevimon inclined her head towards him and faded out of view.

* * *

Takato stood at the edge of a window, looking out over the mist that surrounded GranDracmon's keep. His eyes furrowed in deep thought, and he stepped up onto the ledge of the window.

"Going to meet 'him' are we?" asked LadyDevimon, coming up behind him. Takato froze and looked over at her, surprised to see her.

"That was fast," he commented. LadyDevimon narrowed her eyes at him and folded her arms beneath her breasts.

"Answer my question," she growled. Takato chuckled a little.

"I promised Kurata that I'd get his glasses fixed," he replied, producing the spectacles from his shirt's pocket as evidence. "He's the only digimon that I know who's willing to do that."

"GranDracmon wouldn't like knowing that you still visit Wisemon," she said. "I could tell him that, you know. See if you could see the light of the upper worlds again after that."

Takato paused, but shrugged. "I told Kurata I'd do this for him. Besides, you keep telling me that I'm never getting out of here."

"Losing hope then, human?" She had a mocking tone to her voice as she said that, waiting to see what the boy's answer would be.

Takato pressed one hand against the side of the window and flashed LadyDevimon a quick smile before stepping back onto the ledge. Seeing his movement, she ground her fangs together and grabbed him roughly by the shirt, pulling him back. It squirmed beneath her claws in discomfort, adjusting itself, and after a moment, stilled.

"You'd only end up breaking your fool neck on your own," LadyDevimon growled before stepping up onto the ledge and leaping outwards. Her black wings spread, catching the morning air and she held Takato close to her chest as the two of them flew through the air. They made their journey in silence and after several minutes they touched down in front of a small hut. Black smoke billowed out of its chimney as Takato and LadyDevimon separated. LadyDevimon looked over her shoulder, seeing GranDracmon's castle standing in the distance before returning her attention back to her companion.

"You and your 'promises'…"

Takato looked at her and gave her a soft, friendly smile. "Thanks, LadyDevimon."

"Just get a move on," she hissed. "GranDracmon…"

"I know, I know. I won't be long." Takato stepped towards the hut and knocked on its door. It opened, and in the entryway stood a human-like digimon garbed in a dark brown robe with a sand-colored cloak thrown over his shoulders. Stark, amber-glowing eyes stared out from behind the shadows of his hood, but they radiated a warmth to them that was immediately accepting and happy to see all who came to his doorstep. He nodded towards Takato and looked over at LadyDevimon, who stood with her arms over her chest, glaring angrily at the two.

"Hello, Takato," he greeted. "LadyDevimon. To what do I owe this pleasure of your visit today? Anyone care for a drink?"

"Sorry," said Takato, giving Wisemon an apologetic shrug of his shoulders. "We're about to go off on a mission, so I'm afraid that my visit here isn't for…ah…you know. Visiting." Takato coughed in embarrassment and produced the glasses. "One of the people coming with us needs these fixed. If it's not too much trouble…"

"It never is, Takato," said Wisemon, and Takato had the strangest feeling that he was smiling kindly beneath his hood. Accepting the glasses, he produced a gray-covered book and placed the glasses over them. A soft glow enveloped the two, and a second later, the glasses were whole again. Taking them off, he returned them to Takato. "Is that satisfactory?"

Takato looked them over and nodded, smiling.

"Thanks, Wisemon. Again, I'm sorry that I can't stick around…"

"Missions in life are important, Takato," said Wisemon, placing a hand on the boy's shoulder. "One must never shirk from them when they come calling. During such times, always remember to keep your friends close to you. You will need them."

Wisemon tightened his grip briefly on Takato's shoulder before moving away. Stepping around Takato, he moved over towards LadyDevimon, and nodded his head towards her.

"Nice to see you again. It has been…quite a while since you last graced my doorstep as a BlackGatomon." Wisemon tilted his head to the side and raised an eyebrow. "You've changed much I see."

LadyDevimon's eyes thinned to slits and she made a dangerous, guttural sound in the back of her throat.

"Takato. You've got what you came for. We are leaving. _Now."_

"Huh? Oh, yeah. Um…sure. I'll see you later, Wisemon." Takato glanced between the two nervously before moving over to his companion. LadyDevimon took hold of him, and with a flap of her tattered wings, took to the air. Wisemon watched them go, folding his arms over his chest.

"Until we meet again," he said quietly to himself as the two disappeared.

* * *

Takato didn't say anything to LadyDevimon about her association with Wisemon as the two of them returned to the castle. He had always believed himself to have been the only one from the castle who had met with him. GranDracmon did not encourage meetings with him, though he hadn't expressly forbid it from happening, he made it clear that he was best left alone. And now to discover that LadyDevimon had once known him… From his association with her, he had learned that she did not enjoy talking at any great length, especially when he was being sympathetic towards her.

_In more ways than one, she reminds me of Rika,_ he thought quietly to himself._ But even at her worst…she was more open and willing to talk._

Takato's expression fell a little as he remembered the red headed Digimon Queen. The memory of her and all of his friends were branded in his mind and they came to him unbidden. As always he pulled his hands into fists and tightened them, forcefully pushing the memories to the side. He hated doing so, but it was times like these, outside the solitude of his room, that he didn't want to remember the things that he lost since arriving here.

_Besides. I will see them again…one day. Until then, I can't let myself break. I have to keep looking for a way to get back home. I have too…_

Unbeknownst to him, LadyDevimon was watching him out of the corner of her eye. Seeing the tightness of his fists, she made a _tsking_ sound and looked away.

"Huh?" asked Takato, unfolding his hands. "Did you say something?"

"Only at the realization of what a lost fool you are," she mocked, coming to a halt. "We are here."

"Oh." Blinking, Takato saw that he had just been about to miss GranDracmon's chamber doors. Quickly returning to LadyDevimon's side, the two of them pushed open the doors and entered the room.

"Well, well," said the irritated voice of Kurata, leaning casually in a chair while flanked by a pair of ghostly Bakemon and a scythe wielding Phantomon, his distorted face looking at them with an arrogant, bored expression. "Look who finally decided to show up."

"Okay," Takato said as they strode in. "We're all set."

Reaching into his pocket, he produced Kurata's glasses and handed them to the man, who raised an eyebrow at him, but took them all the same without a word, slipping them onto his face. LadyDevimon bared her fangs at him in detestation, but Kurata showed no signs of having seen them or caring.

"So, what's going on here?" asked Kurata. "I assume that you're finally going to get around explaining things to me now that these two are here at last? I know I'd like to know what's going on, among _other_ things, like how I got here, but you don't seem to care to divulge any information to me beyond this nonsense that the kid over there said about my 'being dead'…"

"Human," sneered LadyDevimon contemptuously, "you talk too much."

"And this could easily become a trade of insults until you decide to show me that you're not afraid of eviscerating me again," replied Kurata, pushing his glasses up onto his nose. "But we all know that you're kept on far too tight of a leash to bother, so why don't we move onto the main course, shall we? I have no desire to talk with a thing like you anyway."

LadyDevimon nearly lunged forward, but a sharp look from GranDracmon caused her to draw up short. _Tsking_, LadyDevimon straightened and crossed her arms. GranDracmon smiled.

"My apologies, Kurata. LadyDevimon. Takato. Now, if I can have your attention." Pointing towards the floor, all eyes turned towards the circle that had been drawn on the floor. A series of mystical, star shaped images and words written in digi-code lined it.

"A magic pentagram," scoffed Kurata, getting up from his seat. "I don't know why I'm even here."

The Bakemon moved to intercept him, and Kurata scowled.

"It is not so much as 'magic'," said GranDracmon, "as it is merely advanced programming language. It's appearance comes more from you humans because your desires, dreams, and fantasies come out through the digital world." A smile drew across GranDracmon's face. "You cannot fault us for how things appear before you. After all, you are all responsible for how we came to be, and we reflect who you are. We are your mirror."

"Please. As if I could be bought into that claptrap." Kurata shook his head in annoyance. "You digimon are nothing more than a mere disease, and I want to leave this place, so if you don't mind…"

"I am providing you with a means to leave," chuckled GranDracmon. "This seal will transport you to the actual digital world. From there, I must ask you to remain in the care of these two—at least for a time while we search to identify an unusual individual who arrived here, looking for you. If you want to know anything further, you should ask these two while you journey with them. They'll have the answers you seek, and provide more."

Kurata scowled. _Someone was after me?_ he wondered. His memory was…fuzzy at best. The last thing that he could remember clearly was staring up at the presence of the digital world in the sky after his attempt to destroy it had backfired horribly—all this after his brutal defeat at the hands of the brat, Marcus Damon and his digimon pet of a partner, ShineGreymon. He looked down at his deformed hand, a shocking twist of black veins against pale skin, with fingers that couldn't seem to make up their minds whether or not they wanted to be clawed or not. His skin crawled just seeing the veins alone, as they pumped unknown fluids through his body.

"This all sounds very well and good," said Kurata, looking away from his arm and stuffing it into the pocket of the clothes he had been provided with. "But I have only your word about this."

"Please," snarled LadyDevimon. "How could you _possibly_ not know? You fought the entity himself! He wanted you, and the only reason he backed off was because my master arrived."

Kurata pushed his glasses up onto his face, eying LadyDevimon warily. "If this is digital hell," he said carefully, not wanting to divulge the loss of memory at the moment, "how can I trust anything you say to me?"

LadyDevimon glanced up at GranDracmon. "We don't need him. He'll only slow us down, and will probably escape at the first opportunity."

"If he should do that," smiled GranDracmon. "Then let him."

Kurata blinked. _What?_

He was not the only one confused, as Takato and LadyDevimon both looked at GranDracmon with equal confusion.

"You have a mission to complete," continued GranDracmon. "I had merely been holding Kurata here for safekeeping as he had been dangerous at the time. Awake and in control of himself now, I could care less about where he goes or what he does. It is only the essence of Belphemon that holds the interest of the entity that came looking for him, and I am interested in knowing who and what he is. Kurata is free to go where he will, since this place would provide him with no safety from the entity and he desires to leave anyway. I have no desire to keep people here if they do not want to stay."

Kurata stared at GranDracmon suspiciously. There was something about his words that left him feeling a bit…off. He didn't know how to describe it really, but that was it. Still, there were some things that he said that could not be denied…right? Besides, it wasn't as though he had to stay with the LadyDevimon and Takato.

_Can I trust them on that?_

Kurata couldn't be sure. For some reason it was strangely hard to think, and the world felt as though it was spinning. He couldn't focus, but after a moment, he finally nodded.

"If I can get out of here, fine. I'm sick and tired of all these gray shadows…"

"Than please stand in the center of the circle. Takato and LadyDevimon will fill you in on the rest afterwards."

Takato looked up at LadyDevimon and smiled. "Well, that was easy enough."

LadyDevimon just looked at him with a blank expression. "You're an idiot."

"Hey! Why are you…?"

"Enough talk," she said, shoving him towards the circle. "It's time we were going."

Standing in the center of the circle, the trio waited while GranDracmon spread his hands out, mumbling something under his breath. After a few moments, a series of clicks firing in rapid succession followed by a mechanical distortion emerged from his mouth, and his hands glowed brightly. In response, energy flared around the circle. Kurata stiffened as he felt energy pervade his entire body.

"Hold on," he said, feeling every fiber of his being squirm against the feeling of 'loosening' that he felt. "I don't think this is a good id-."

Kurata was cut off as his body, and that of Takato and LadyDevimon, all disappeared in a flash of white light. The light dimmed and the steam arose from the seal. Leaning back, GranDracmon reached for his cup and filled it with wine.

"The next move is yours, oh mysterious one," he said to the empty room before taking a drink.

* * *

* * *

Marcus hit the ground hard and rolled. Coming a rest, he lay still for a moment, catching his breath as he felt his hand pulsate painfully. Looking down at it, he saw a dark red bruising swelling beneath his skin.

_Somehow,_ he thought, flexing his hand and wincing at it painfully,_ I get the feeling that King Drasil was holding back. But at least nothing's broken. At least…nothing _feels_ broken. I really can't tell right now._

Marcus staggered to his feet. "Agumon," he muttered, shaking his head. "Agumon!" he shouted more firmly. As though in response, a bright flash of light followed by an explosion rocked the earth, sending him sprawling to the ground where he hit his injured hand. Marcus bit off a cry and gritted his teeth, forbidding the noise from escaping his mouth. Regaining his balance, Marcus stood up and quickly found his partner, ShineGreymon. He wasn't that far away from him, but he was blasting fire through a series of buildings in front of him. The sound of digimon screaming in surprise and fear filled the air. Marcus cursed as a Gotsumon bumped into him, nearly knocking him over.

"Hey!" Marcus exclaimed. "Watch where you're going!"

"Sorry," the Gotsumon apologized, rubbing the side of his head before his eyes widened in surprise. _"Marcus!"_

"Wait," Marcus blinked. "You know me? Hang on…you're _Gotsumon!"_

"That's right! We were together when the Royal Knights attacked…"

An explosion rocked the village again, and the two dove to the side, narrowly avoiding getting hit by a flying piece of debris.

"We're going to have to catch up after this is over," said Marcus, looking over his shoulder to see ShineGreymon level yet another building. A stream of fire erupted from the ruins and struck the Mega level digimon, but it did nothing to him. ShineGreymon immediately followed up with a slash from a blazing, dark colored blade of raw energy, gouging a trench through the ground and sending a shower of sparkling data into the air. More screams. Fire broke out amongst the buildings and began to spread.

"What's going on?" demanded Gotsumon, grabbing hold of Marcus' shirt. "That guy looks like Agumon!"

"Long story," Marcus said, pulling his shirt free from the rock digimon's grasp. "Tell you later. Right now we've got to stop him!"

Marcus rushed forward with Gotsumon chasing after him. Dark fire flared around the street fighter's uninjured fist and his stomach clenched in response. He pushed it down however, knowing that every second counted if he was going to put an end to this.

_If_ he could put an end to this.

Pushing aside such negative thoughts, Marcus prepared to leap into the air…only to fall to the ground as a spear of energy emanated by ShineGreymon split the ground beneath him. Marcus rolled to the side and fire burst before him. There was another scream. Marcus found himself pulling backwards, the searing heat becoming too much for him to bear. ShineGreymon threw his head back and let loose a powerful roar. Dark flames erupted from his back and in his hands.

"Agumon!" Marcus shouted, trying to get his partner's attention. "Cut it out! Stop it!"

ShineGreymon continued to tear into the village, shattering another house. The fires crept up around his body, and with one final, intense roar, they exploded outwards, and Marcus was knocked backwards again, striking the side of a house with enough force to send stars bursting across his vision. Blinking them back, he hurried to his feet and looked around. ShineGreymon was gone.

"Agumon!" Marcus shouted, wincing in pain. His head was pulsating, and his stomach was hardly doing any better. Digimon continued to scream but there were no more explosions now. Only burning fire.

_No…he can't be gone,_ thought Marcus, feeling panic beginning to set in. _Not again…_

He remembered the last time Agumon had dark-digivolved into ShineGreymon's Ruin Mode. He ran out of control and burned himself out, returning to the Digi-egg stage of development. Back then, there had been danger that Agumon, though he would be reborn, would not remember anything about his life or his friendship with Marcus or anyone from DATS. The strength of their bond had managed to circumvent the risk, but would that still hold a second time? Especially now that something seemed to be going wrong with their bond?

"Agumon! Agumon!"

Marcus rushed through the fires, trying to find some sign of his partner until he finally spied a familiar form lying among the burning ruins of a house. It was a small, pink colored ball with a face, and two, long, antennae-like objects protruding from the top of its head. It was Koromon, Agumon's In-training form.

Marcus ran over to him, knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt that this was his partner. Kneeling down, he picked up his partner, and after hearing a light groan coming from him, breathed a sigh of relief. Standing up, he looked around him, holding his partner close to him.

"Is everyone all right?" he called out. Now that he had confirmed that Koromon was all right, he needed to know the extent of damage he and Agumon inadvertently caused. Who was injured, how many lives had been ruined…and all because of them?

Marcus turned around until he found a crowd of digimon gathering before him. At the head of them was Gotsumon, and he was looking angry.

"Marcus…" the rocky digimon growled. His eyes suddenly flared red and an orange circle with two lines linking up into a crown-like design appeared on his forehead. A circle that was reflected on the bodies of the multitude of digimon gathered behind him.

"Uh…Gotsumon?" Marcus asked, feeling a sudden sense of worry. The crowd seemed to be getting bigger and bigger by the second. "Are you okay?"

Slowly, Gotsumon took a step forward, as did the rest of the crowd behind him. Rage beat upon the air amongst the crowd as the legion of digimon began to advance, their eyes promising violence for the destruction visited upon them.

* * *

A/N: Takato and LadyDevimon's part of this chapter wasn't originally meant to last as long as it did, but as I kept writing, I found more things to add about their lives there and how they interact with each other. Pinning down LadyDevimon's personality is proving to be a bit challenging, as she's supposed to be very demonic, and incorporate what has been shown in the series proper: nasty, takes delight in the suffering of others, sensual to the extreme and often at the expense of others, etc…while at the same time being a bit different because of the duty forced upon her, which in turn forces her to hold back and be less than what she delights in being.

Likewise, Wisemon was supposed to do more in this chapter, and there was to be a bit more of an in-depth look into his connection with Takato, but time restraints made me decide to touch on it later as the story requires.

Marcus' appearance is meant to build upon the look into the digital world that I've wanted to do, but the Dark Area part of the chapter crowded it a bit, so more will be looked into as he looks for a way to get out of the trouble that he's in. Gotsumon's presence was more of an afterthought to drive home how that aspect, especially in regards to his character in Data Squad, which will see a revisit to his more negative side.

Until next chapter then. :P

-Crazyeight

* * *

9


	29. Roaring Fire

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.

Revival

Chapter: 29/ Roaring Fire

Marcus dove to the side as a fireball flew over his head, courtesy of an Agumon much smaller than the one that he was accustomed to fighting alongside with. Rolling back to his feet the ultimate street fighter took one look at the mob and grimaced.

_This is not looking good,_ he thought as they swarmed towards him at breakneck speed. Lashing out, he kicked at the head of an oncoming Pumkinmon, sending him careening to the side. A DemiDevimon was on him a second later, followed swiftly by an angry looking Patamon. Ducking beneath the two, he backed off, holding Koromon tightly in his arms.

"Gotsumon!" he shouted, trying to find the rock-type Rookie amidst the blazing inferno and dark shapes of digimon. "Gotsumon! Call them off!"

"I'm afraid I can't do that," growled Gotsumon's familiar voice from behind him. Looking over his shoulder, Marcus found the rocky digimon crouched atop one of the village roofs, his eyes glowing blood red. To Marcus, he looked like a predator that had just cornered its prey. "You brought this on yourself…_human."_

"Gotsumon…" Marcus frowned. The sound in Gotsumon's voice…it reminded him all too much of the way he had been when they first encountered each other, back when he was in the service of Merukimon, one of the Olympus Twelve that ruled the digital world. Gotsumon had held a deep hate and mistrust towards humans of all stripes, no matter what their intentions were or whose side they were on.

_And we can thank Kurata for that,_ thought Marcus, grating his teeth together. His eyes locked with those of Gotsumon's and he tightened his hold on Koromon.

"Don't make me do this, Gotsumon," he warned. The red light in the digimon's eyes flared as though in amusement.

"Worry about stopping me from doing _this!_ **Rock Fist!"**

A jagged rock shot free from Gotsumon's head just then and rocketed towards Marcus. The street fighter jumped to the side, narrowly avoiding it as it streaked past him.

"That's it!" Marcus growled, getting into a crouch. "I warned you! It's fightin' time a-!"

Suddenly Marcus hesitated, seeing a flash of dark data swirling around his fist. Clenching his teeth together, he glared at the crowd of digimon, sizing them up before taking off at a run.

"Boss…" wheezed Koromon weakly. "W-What're we doing? Why're we running?"

"I'm trying to keep you out of trouble," he replied. "In case you didn't notice, every time we've gotten into a fight where I've had to activate my DNA, something goes wrong and you cause a lot of damage! There's something wrong going on here, Agumon. These guys are innocent. We can't afford to hurt them!"

"I…see…" Koromon used his ears to pull himself up just enough to look over his partner's shoulder. "So…what's to stop them from hurting us instead?"

Marcus cursed and fell into a roll, narrowly avoiding a Snimon as its sickle blade arms ripped through the wall of a hut. The insectoid Champion hissed as it spied its prey and immediately began to advance on him.

"Hate to say it boss," said Agumon with a sense of resignation in his voice, "but I don't think we can afford to play nice here. These guys mean business."

"I hate to say it," said Marcus, "but I'm starting to think you're right."

Looking from one side to the other did little to alleviate Koromon's case. Digimon were swarming from every path, all of them with a red glow in their eyes and an orange circle on their bodies. All of them were out for blood—_his_ blood to be more specific, and Agumon's data as a nice desert.

Dark fire flared around his fist again. They were rapidly running out of options.

* * *

_Kurata opened his eyes and blinked at the sky above him. For a moment—that most briefest of moments where time stretches out for an eternity—he saw the tear that stood out in the sky begin to expand, and a bright light began to emerge from it. Just mere seconds ago he had detonated one of his space-oscillation bombs in a digital tear, hoping to destroy the digital world and defeat the bastard son of the Spenser Damon, who he hated beyond all reason…but something went wrong. The tear that he set it off in did not collapse, nor did the digital world disappear. Instead, it merely grew, like a mouth, threatening to swallow him up…_

_ "Not this… Please no! This isn't what I was trying to DOOO…! NOOO! HELP ME! PLEASE!"_

_ In his final moments, Kurata's scream rang upon the air…

* * *

_

"Such beautiful screams," crooned LadyDevimon as the light began to die down around them. "If only they were for me."

"Are you okay, Kurata?" asked Takato, looking over at the man. Kurata gasped, feeling cold sweat dripping down his back.

_For a second there, I thought…_ Kurata regained his posture and adjusted his glasses. "…Fine. I was just a bit taken aback. I was half expecting to end up in a dungeon again."

"As if you need to hide it," smirked LadyDevimon. "We all know what you saw. GranDracmon's method of transporting has a tendency of bringing out one's final moments. It's what happens when you return to the land of the living."

"What do you mean?"

LadyDevimon looked at Kurata smugly. "I'm sorry. Do you talk to _things_ now?"

"Easy guys," placated Takato, coming between the two. "Let's not fight as soon as we get here. I mean…come on. Can't we just get along?"

"Or perhaps," said LadyDevimon, placing one hand on Takato's shoulder and tightening her grip painfully, "I should just remove him and the potential threat he represents. The entity would have no use for a dead digimon-human hybrid…"

"Which…would be pointless, and you know it," said Takato with a pained grimace, placing his hand over LadyDevimon's and removing it. Still smirking, the demoness allowed him to do so and folded her arms beneath her breasts. Kurata observed the scene with a look of disgust.

_Can't he see how dangerous she is?_ he wondered. _Or is he just stu…  
_Kurata was cut off from his thoughts as his nose tickled, and he immediately sneezed into his hands. Cursing under his breath, he looked up at Takato's concerned face.

"Um…are you okay, Kurata?"

"It's nothing," he said, feeling rather embarrassed that his allergy towards digimon continued to pester him even into his 'death'. "Just…something in the wind, that's all."

"Ahhh…yes." LadyDevimon grinned as she sniffed the air. "There's a fire out there…a _big_ one."

"That usually doesn't mean anything good," noted Takato worriedly. "Maybe we should check it out?"

LadyDevimon cocked a head towards the boy, her red eyes bright with a fire of their own. "Yes," she said in a voice full of hunger and expectation. "Let's."

"Hey, wait!"

Before Takato could say or do anything else, she vanished into thin air, leaving Takato with one hand raised in the air helplessly in a vain effort to stop her.

"Man, I really wish she wouldn't do that…"

* * *

LadyDevimon sped through the air, her crimson eyes quickly zeroing in on the source of the smell she had picked up. She grinned, and her fangs glistened in the light of the digital world. There was a small village of huts a fair ways off from their position, and if she was any judge, it was an inferno! Even now, an explosion rocked it. She breathed in the air through her mouth, tasting its deliciousness upon her tongue. Her tattered wings quivered in anticipation. The data…her first real data in what felt like an eternity, was in that village. She would not waste this opportunity.

Flapping her wings, she quickened her pace, eager to begin her dance of death and destruction.

* * *

"Get…_back!"_

A Toucanmon collapsed to the ground as Marcus drove his fist into it. The creature popped back up and rushed him again, but this time caught a face full of acidic bubbles courtesy of Koromon. Crying out more in disgust than in pain, the Toucanmon fell back, flapping its bird-like wings against its face to clean it. Marcus breathed heavily, but his fists refused to drop. Lying upon the ground in scattered piles were a large number of Rookie digimon and a few, small Champions.

_Most of the stronger digimon must have been deleted when Agumon and I got here,_ Marcus thought, steadying himself. His body was a mass of scrapes and bruises, all garnered from the digimon he had been grappling with. He knew it was nothing short of a miracle that he was still standing after all this punishment._ If I could use my DNA, this wouldn't be as big of a deal. I could mop these guys up without Koromon's help, but…_ Marcus glanced at his fist. _…I can't depend on it right now. I don't know what'll happen to Agumon if I use it, never mind what could happen to these guys._

He brought his gaze up to the mass of digimon. He had managed to fight his way into a narrow pathway where they were forced to come at him a few at a time, even with the benefit of climbing up onto the rooftops. Still, that hadn't stopped some of the stronger digimon from cutting loose with all their strength. Marcus narrowed his eyes when he remembered the Snimon that tore through its own companions to get at him. The other digimon turned on it and ripped it to shreds, loading its data before returning their focus back onto him. So surprised had he been by the sheer cruelty of the act and the lack of concern for all parties involved that he missed his opportunity to get out of the village.

_There's something wrong with these guys,_ he thought, glancing down at the orange circle that glowed on their bodies. He wasn't quite sure how to describe it really. The pattern inlaid in its center was a bit odd. On one hand it reminded him of the branches of a tree, but it lacked the irregularity of the plant to even be called that, never mind the fact that the two lines that seemed to stretch outwards towards the side, met up in a corner to form what he could only call a three pronged crown. Marcus frowned. _That symbol…have I seen it somewhere before?_

Several more digimon leaped forward before he could answer his thought, and his fists quickly met them, knocking them backwards once again. This time however, the swarm of digimon was not daunted by his efforts, nor did they care about their companions either. Storming forward, they unleashed their attacks, deleting their companions as they fought to reach their target. Marcus and Koromon ducked and dodged, trying to stay out of the way, but the two quickly realized that in the confine space they were in, that was quickly becoming a no-win option.

As if to drive the point home, a digimon resembling a scarecrow with a raven on one arm—a Nohemon—raised a bow and fired at Marcus.

**"William's Arrow!"**

The arrow shot through the air and hit Marcus dead center in his shoulder, knocking him backwards onto the ground. Pain erupted in his arm, all but blotting out all thought, but through sheer force of will, Marcus was on his feet. Black data swarmed around his fists and began to flow up his body…

A shadow fell upon the swarm of digimon and an evil cackle filled the air, causing all sides to draw to a halt and look up. Blinking his eyes blearily at the light of the digital Earth suspended in the sky, Marcus saw the vague outline of a female figure floating in the air, one hand sitting on a jutted out hip while the other raked the air with razor sharp, crimson nails.

"Ahhh…" LadyDevimon breathed. "So _this_ is the source of all the chaos. How nice to find a human here. My master will be most pleased…"

Lowering her claws ever so slightly, LadyDevimon vanished into thin air, only to reappear amidst the sea of digimon. Red hair splashed outwards as her claws tore through several digimon with frightening ease, causing the digimon to burst into shards of data. LadyDevimon crooned happily as she rose, towering over the digimon that now stood stock still in surprise and shock at her sudden appearance.

"A Nightmare Soldier…" whispered a digimon somewhere in the crowd.

"Please… Don't associate me with _them,"_ LadyDevimon said mockingly. "And tell me this isn't _all_ that you have for me to fight against. This is just too easy."

The mistress of darkness' eyes panned around her, taking in the group. Her eye twitched slightly, taking notice of the circles emblazoned on the digimon and she laughed softly.

"Well, well, well…the Crest of Wrath," she murmured. "Now _this_ is a surprise…"

As one, the mass of digimon rushed forward, unleashing a barrage of attacks as they did so. Laughing again, LadyDevimon casually swept her long arms through the air, dashing the attacks to the side and causing them to break up before they could even touch her. Raising one clawed arm upwards she rotated and unleashed a swarm of bats and dark energy upon the mob.

**"Darkness Wave!"**

The bats clashed with the digimon, deleting several of them immediately while causing others to collapse or run backwards.

"Oh, you are _not_ running from me now," LadyDevimon cackled before jumping forward. Data sprayed through the air as her claws ripped through their targets. Digimon screamed and fell to the ground, their cries ending abruptly as she stabbed down into them. Sparkling data rose into the air, and LadyDevimon breathed inwards, her chest rising and falling in exhilaration. Excitement rushed through her body, the feeling increasing in intensity as the shards of data began to pull into her.

"Yes…" she breathed, closing her eyes in ecstasy. "Oh…_yes!_ That's right…come to Mama…"

Opening her eyes, the demoness leered at the remaining digimon and raised her claws.

"Come on," she taunted. "Are you going to just stand there? Or am I going to have to go over to you instead? One way or another, you're _all_ mine!"

"Hey!"

Marcus' bellow echoed upon the air, causing LadyDevimon to turn towards him with an irritated look on her face.

"What is it, human? Can't you see that I'm busy?"

Marcus' golden eyes glared at the demonic digimon furiously. "What are you doing? Are you trying to hurt them?"

"I thought it was rather obvious," LadyDevimon said sarcastically. "Now why don't you sit back and relax. Poor thing, you look like they've been abusing you. Allow me to return them the favor."

Marcus' step forward caused her to raise an eyebrow. She took in his clenched fists, raised and pointed in her direction.

"Oh my…you have some fight in you still. How excellent. I do love it when you weakling humans pretend to be strong. You're so entertaining."

"You're _not_ going to harm them," Marcus said firmly.

"Yeah!" shouted Koromon fiercely. "So back off!"

"Why should I? Because you said so? Do not mock me!" LadyDevimon sneered at them and extended one arm outwards, snagging a hapless digimon from the crowd and hoisting him into the air. Marcus' eyes went wide as he saw who it was.

"Gotsumon!"

"Oh, good. You know this one. How convenient. Now let me give you the same word of advice that you so generously offered me: back off. Otherwise, this digimon here," she tightened her grip on Gotsumon's body, and cracks split across the length of his body, causing him to cry out in pain, "dies right now. Stand down, and I shall save him for last. You never know," LadyDevimon smirked maliciously, "you might be able to escape with him before I set my sights on you. However," she glanced at the glowing orange ring on Gotsumon's body, "I doubt you'll be able to get very far. Not with _that_ on him."

Marcus hesitated. He had never really been what he could call 'friends' with Gotsumon, but after his rebirth and subsequent loss of his old memories he had been a completely different and altogether friendly digimon. He even helped keep the real and digital worlds apart.

_The old man, the Commander General of DATS, Homer Yushima thought he was okay,_ thought Marcus. He glanced over at the other digimon. _But…I can't just let all these digimon get butchered by this crazy lady. I may not know what's going on, but I do know that whatever's on them isn't normal. Gotsumon wouldn't have attacked me. Not since his rebirth anyway. Besides…_ Marcus tightened his fists. _…I promised to keep the peace of the digital world, and I refuse to run away from a fight._

As though reading his thoughts, LadyDevimon scoffed at him contemptuously. "Very well then. I guess you won't be needing _this_ anymore!" Tightening her grip, LadyDevimon shattered Gotsumon's body at the waist. The rock digimon gave out one final cry, the circle on his body winking out of existence as the color of his eyes cleared, and then he vanished into a shower of sparkling light. Marcus stared at her in shock, his fists trembling. Dark flames again lit at the ends of his arms and began to crawl up his body. Anger flared in his chest and he took a menacing step towards LadyDevimon. The demoness wasn't paying him any heed, as she was already closing her eyes. A light glow surrounded her body as Gotsumon's data began to draw towards her.

"Eh?" LadyDevimon's eyes shot open wide and the light surrounding her cut off. An annoyed expression drew across her face as the data again resumed its aimless floating. "Blast it…"

With a light step, LadyDevimon took to the air, floating there and assumed an impatient, waiting stance. A shadow fell over the spot where she had been, and a massive form slammed into the village, kicking up a cloud of dust and smoke. Marcus coughed, his anger momentarily forgotten by the new arrival. A dark shadow rose into the air and a blue cape flapped upon the breeze. Marcus' eyes widened as he caught sight of the figure.

It greatly resembled Gallantmon, a Royal Knight that he had fought before, with the appearance of its overall design and bodily proportions. A great shield hung on one arm while the other supported a massive lance. Two shoulder guards shone in the light of the digital Earth, and a visor resembling a reptile glinted. But that was where the resemblance ended. This digimon, though a knight he was, did not in the least share Gallantmon's colors. White was replaced by a charcoal gray color, and blue was left in the place of crimson. The eyes that stared outwards were golden however, and the massive figure looked back and forth before finally leveling its gaze on LadyDevimon.

"You really should wait before running off on your own you know," the knight said in a surprisingly youthful, but highly annoyed voice. There was none of the sophistication that Gallantmon had in his tones. Nothing deep or commanding. Beneath his annoyance though, there was a current of anger that bubbled beneath the surface, only just barely held in check. LadyDevimon sneered at the knight, undaunted by his words.

"Don't think that because you've arrived in your ChaosGallantmon form that you can stop me from having my fun."

"LadyDevimon…" ChaosGallantmon shifted and raised his lance. He paused in his speaking, and the demoness narrowed her eyes, anger already flaring in them.

"These digimon are already lost causes, and you know it. You _still_ cling to your values?"

"…Do you remember what I said to you before?" ChaosGallantmon continued carefully, measuring his words. His words sounded heavy. A spark shone in LadyDevimon's eyes and she lunged forward, smashing into the massive Mega. Jumping upwards, ChaosGallantmon allowed LadyDevimon's attack to carry them both backwards, away from the other digimon. Marcus watched them go, too caught up by their unexpected battle to notice another figure arriving until he spoke.

"Marcus…Damon. How interesting it is to find you here…"

Anger flared anew in Marcus as he recognized the voice. Spinning, he sought its source until his eyes fell upon a figure standing atop a hut, hands in his pockets. His face was deformed, but Marcus recognized him easily as the human who had caused so much trouble and grief back home.

"Boss!" exclaimed Koromon in surprise. "That's…"

_"Kurata!"_

Kurata pushed up his glasses and smirked at him.

"How kind of you and your pet to remember me, Marcus. I…" Kurata paused and suddenly sneezed. Wiping his nose, he looked down at the street fighter, an annoyed look on his face. "Well, that was wonderful. A glorious moment ruined by allergies…"

Kurata didn't get to finish his sentence, because in the next second, Marcus and Koromon launched themselves onto the rooftop and lunged at him. Marcus' fist hurled through the air and impacted into Kurata's face, throwing him off the roof and down onto the hard ground below.

Kurata groaned and pushed himself up from off the ground only to be shoved back down as Marcus landed on top of him.

"So this is how you treat someone you haven't seen in a while," Kurata grunted, not even bothering to struggle.

"What are you doing here, Kurata?" Marcus growled, holding Kurata down. "The last time I saw you, you were being pulled into a tear—a tear _you_ helped make!"

"Life is a funny thing. Or maybe I should say 'death' instead. It's not an easy thing for digimon…"

"You're not a digimon," growled Koromon, hopping over to the man. Kurata wiggled his nose, all the muscles in his face trying desperately to sneeze. For the moment, he clamped down on them, preventing them from doing so.

"Did you even _notice_ what the two of you did to me? I'm not looking the way I do because I want to. And…" Kurata shifted and let loose a cry. There was a snapping sound in one arm and it moved up to grab Marcus by the shirt. With it held firmly in his hand, the misshapen human deftly hurled the street fighter away from him, landing with a loud thud in front of the crowd of digimon, who were standing there, watching uncertainly. Getting up, Kurata adjusted his glasses and rotated his arm, causing a series of pops and snaps to occur.

"I'm not quite sure what happened, but it seems as though when I 'died', Belphemon's data became mixed with mine, and we were reborn together in another digital world. One specifically designed for dark digimon it seems."

Marcus rolled to his feet, his fists raised. "Then one way or another, I'm going to send you back there!"

Kurata smirked and pointed in the direction over Marcus' shoulder. "Then you might want to think things through. It appears you have quite the mess on your hands here."

"Ah—!" Marcus froze and looked over his shoulder, remembering the situation that he and his partner landed in. The mob of digimon was still there, watching, only now some of them were starting to stalk towards them, no longer content with sitting on the sidelines. A small, dragon-like digimon tore free from the crowd and rushed Marcus, fire licking at his teeth.

_"Koromon! Digivolve tooo…Agumon!"_

A flash of light tore through the air, and the massive form of Agumon crashed into the dragon digimon. The two rolled on the ground, and Agumon was up on his feet a second before his opponent, fire already forming in the back of his mouth.

**"Pepper Breath!"** shouted Agumon, unleashing a torrential fireball on the digimon. The blasts smacked it full in the face, causing it to fall backwards onto the ground. Another digimon, this time a small monkey, was on him, clawing at his face, followed quickly by an insect digimon—a Tentomon—unleashing electrical bolts. Growling, Marcus swept up a small piece of rubble from off the ground and hurled it at the Tentomon, smashing it against its skull and knocking it to the ground. He ran forward as the army of digimon swarmed over Agumon, ripping and tearing with their claws. Smirking, Kurata leaned backwards, observing the situation.

"I'm going to enjoy you getting your 'just desserts', Marcus…" he began, only to be interrupted by movement from out of the corner of his eye. Lashing out with a fist, he caught a rolled up Armadillomon and smacked it out of midair. More digimon were rushing towards him, and Kurata took a step backwards, cursing, but half a moment later, he smirked in realization.

"Guess I'm going to get to see how good this body is now…"

* * *

LadyDevimon's claws scraped upon ChaosGallantmon's shield as she tore at him relentlessly.

"You can't keep this up forever!" she howled. Rearing backwards, she lashed out and struck his shield, but the digimon held firm.

"I don't have to," replied ChaosGallantmon in a firm tone. LadyDevimon snarled, beginning to swoop around, trying to find a weak spot she could attack.

"You won't be able to afford it! You can't maintain that body, not without a _real _digimon partner. You're just feeding off of your own essence and _that_ won't last!" Striking from below, she attacked the backs of ChaosGallantmon's legs, sweeping him off his feet. The Mega flipped through the air however and landed gracefully back on his feet, his cape flapping in the air as it settled back down. LadyDevimon growled and hurled herself at him before he could raise his shield, smashing one fist into his armored face. The dark knight held his ground firmly, not budging an inch from the attack. Snarling, LadyDevimon lashed out and raked her claws across his face. Sparks flew as they scratched upon metal, but ChaosGallantmon refused to budge.

"At least _fight back!"_ she howled in frustration. She grabbed the Mega by the neck and glared into his eyes. "What do you gain by this? Turn back…_now!"_

"Not until you acknowledge our promise!" ChaosGallantmon shot back, his golden eyes narrowing.

"Promise?" LadyDevimon scoffed contemptuously, tightening her grip around his throat. The knight showed no signs that he was at all affected by it though, causing her fury to rise. "I care _nothing_ for _promises_ and things like _honor!_ I have only myself and what I want…and what I want is _to kill!_ Now _stand down!"_

Dismissing his lance, ChaosGallantmon brought one hand up and placed it on the hand that held his throat.

"No," he said simply. Seething in rage, LadyDevimon tore her hand away and stabbed at his eyes with her claws. Sparks flew as ChaosGallantmon caught them with his gauntlet, grunting from the demoness' strength. The two struggled for a moment before ChaosGallantmon's body began to suddenly warp and pulsate before shrinking down to a more human-size, bringing LadyDevimon down with him. Takato, now in his human form staggered and gasped as the edges of the demonic digimon's razor sharp claws sliced along his unprotected hand. Blood flowed, but he still held on tightly. Making a scoffing sound, LadyDevimon lunged forward and belted the boy in the stomach, knocking the wind out of him and causing him to release his hold on her.

"I told you, you couldn't afford to hold that form," she whispered into his ear with a triumphant smirk on her face.

"I'm…not…not done yet…" wheezed Takato as he clutched onto LadyDevimon's arm, trying desperately to pull air back into his lungs.

"Oh, dear me, then I suppose we'll have to rectify that. Take a rest why don't you." Flipping herself upwards, LadyDevimon brought the heel of her foot smashing down onto the back of Takato's skull, causing him to collapse to the ground without a sound. Still smirking, LadyDevimon nudged him with her foot to see if he was still conscious. "I do so _love_ men with fight in them," she said with a note of pride. _"Especially_ when they know it's a lost cause. Now…about this village…" LadyDevimon turned her attention back towards the village, only to pause as the massive form of a dark colored GeoGreymon appeared, sending streams of fire burning in every direction. LadyDevimon grimaced.

"Oh my…it appears the human is starting to go out of control with his digivolutions. That could be a problem…" she glanced down at the unconscious Takato with a thoughtful look on her face and, almost as an afterthought, she hauled him up off the ground like a ragdoll. "I almost forgot. We have a mission to attend to."

Flapping her tattered wings, LadyDevimon flew into the air with her charge.

* * *

Kurata leapt onto the roof of a hut, sweating a little, but pleasantly surprised at the strength that his body possessed. It wasn't anything remotely close to what he possessed as Belphemon, but as it kept him ahead of the GeoGreymon who was presently destroying the village in its attempt to get him and defend his partner at the same time, he was more than willing to count his blessings.

_"Kurataaa!"_ shouted Marcus from somewhere in the flames. Kurata didn't even bother trying to find him. It was enough for him to know that the teenager was busy fighting for his life while at the same time destroying those digimon he had been trying to protect mere moments ago from LadyDevimon.

_Oh, the irony…_ Kurata smirked. _The great defender has now become the great destroyer. You have no idea how much I am appreciating this…_

A shadow fell over him, and turning Kurata found himself staring into the crimson eyes of LadyDevimon, holding a limp Takato in one clawed hand like a prize she won.

"We're going," she said, firmly clamping one hand on Kurata's shoulder. Before the man could say or do anything further, they disappeared into thin air, leaving the village, and Marcus and Agumon, to their fates.

Amidst the heat, Marcus knocked down another wild digimon, dark data swarming over his entire body now. He furiously looked around him, trying to locate Kurata, but finding nothing but enraged digimon swarming everywhere, all aiming their attacks directly at him. This shouldn't have been how it was happening. _Kurata_ was the one who should be targeted like this! Not him!

"KURATAAA!"

GeoGreymon stomped forward, heat emerging in waves from his smoking maw. The flames were everywhere…

* * *

* * *

A/N: So why an entire week of no updates? Easy: I've been doing some redesigning on the plot of an original story idea of mine, which meant a very thorough overhaul, and I wanted all of my attention on it. Anyway, about this chapter:

This chapter really serves to highlight LadyDevimon's ruthlessness and instability as an ally, as well as Marcus' own inability to control his DNA (digi-soul) in light of his having drank some of the water from the Dark Ocean. He was starting to get a handle on it (albeit while losing in a war of attrition against the entire village) but when he saw Kurata he snapped completely and cut loose. Kurata and Marcus' antagonizing relationship is interesting to watch in the show, as Marcus easily appears to be one of the more effected (next to Keenan for much more obvious reasons—namely the loss of his adoptive mother) and Kurata makes it known that he hates Marcus (and by proxy due to his father, the entire Damon family) with equal fervor. So there's no love lost between them. The loss of control here, and his resulting actions thereof, will play an important role for Marcus' development. Next chapter will continue to track Marcus' and the Other Takato's movements and then we'll return to the Tamers' world to see what's going on there.

'Till next chapter then. :P

-Crazyeight

* * *

9


	30. Recovery

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.

Revival

Chapter: 30/ Recovery

Kurata and Takato were dumped unceremoniously to the ground by LadyDevimon as they reappeared. Adjusting his glasses, Kurata looked over his shoulder, frowning as he discovered the plume of smoke rising into the air from the distant horizon. The village continued to burn.

"Good riddance, I say," muttered Kurata before suddenly sneezing into one hand. He was just about to climb to his feet when LadyDevimon shoved him back down to the ground. "Wha…?"

"When you are finished, make sure that your hand is quite clean," she began in a low, threatening tone. "I need you to check on Takato, and the _last_ thing I want is for him to pick up whatever disease you have."

Kurata sniffed at the female digimon and glanced over at the human boy. He lay sprawled on the ground, unmoving, causing Kurata to raise an eyebrow.

"Did you do this to him?" he asked pointedly. A pair of crimson nails shot out in front of his eyes, stopping just short of his glasses. The tips tapped upon the surface as she glared menacingly at him.

"I do not have any healing talents, and Takato—unthinking as he is—did not bother to bring anyone who had any. That leaves you, who is at least human enough to treat him."

"I didn't major in medicine," said Kurata sarcastically, undaunted by the presence of LadyDevimon's claws in his face. "I may have fused digimon into humans, but treating injuries is an entirely different matter. Besides," Kurata glanced over at the unconscious boy and sniffed again, "here in the digital world, injuries aren't what they are normally."

LadyDevimon glowered at Kurata for a moment before retracting her fingernails and stalking off. She paused at Takato's unmoving body and glanced over her shoulder.

"If you are not here when I get back," she warned, "I will drag you back here in pieces."

With that, the demoness spread her tattered wings and vanished into thin air, leaving Kurata alone with Takato.

"Well…this is just…wonderful." Kurata removed his glasses and proceeded to polish them on his clothes, shaking his head at the soot that he had picked up from the village's fire. "How _did_ I get involved in all of this?" Kurata replaced his glasses on his face and looked over at Takato dispassionately. "For that matter, how did you get involved with _her?"

* * *

_

_ "You must be wary about yourself my dear…"_

LadyDevimon's claws flexed dangerously as she flew through the air. Her eyes were narrowed, searching the dessert landscape for any sign of movement.

"…_I feel that I need to remind you about what we talked about before Takato entered…"_

_"Yes. I understand."_

_"Of course you do,"_

_"That is precisely why I have to remind you. It is sometimes best to err on the side of caution, my dear. You can be __too__ passionate at times. That is why you fell, is it not?"_

_ Lord GranDracmon…_

The wind beat against her mask as she ground her fangs together, feeling anger and frustration rise and fall within her chest like a tide. It was a familiar feeling, one that she felt for as long as she could remember, but it was hardly something that she enjoyed feeling—not when she had no way of releasing the pressure and taking joy from doing so. Her crimson eyes darted across the landscape and she curled her upper lip. She could remember the impact of her fists against the boy, the feeling of his folding beneath her strength—restrained as it was—yet despite it, he refused to give in until she had taken him out completely.

_After all this time…all these years…he hasn't changed a bit. He still continues to be the moronic idiot that first stumbled into the beaches, refusing to sink to our level—refusing to do whatever it took to survive in the Dark Ocean and living off whatever _kindness_,_ LadyDevimon's mind spat the word like poison,_ that was offered. Wisemon… You should have left him to his miserable existence when you found him. It would have been a matter of time before some digimon found him and loaded him._

Her clawless hand was curled into a tight fist, and black blood oozed from between her fingers. It was shaking with rage. Growling, she spotted some movement—an Armadillomon sitting in the shade of a digital cactus. She altered her course accordingly and within moments appeared in front of the startled Rookie. Out of pure reflex, the Armadillomon rolled up into a ball and rushed towards her, but a quick backhand put an end to the attack, sending the Rookie crashing to the ground with a cry. She quickly walked over to him and came to a stop. Her shadow all but swallowed him, and the Armadillomon rolled up into a ball again. Growling, she kicked the creature hard, knocking it into the cactus and collapsing to the ground, a large crack running the length of its armored back. Another step forward and she again towered over the helpless creature. Its eyes rose up and met hers before closing, resigning itself to its fate.

_That fight with Takato…_ she thought with a taste of bitterness in her mouth. _…did not feel the same as any of the others we've had._

Her claws flexed, clicking against each other. Her mouth pulled back into a fearsome snarl as she raised her talons.

_Enough of this!_

With the clinking of chains and a soul-searing shriek, LadyDevimon lashed out. Blood red energy slashes cut through the air, and the cactus before her fell to the ground with a heavy thud. Blinking in surprise, the Armadillomon looked up at her.

"Get out of here," she growled at the Rookie, "before I change my mind."

Needing no further encouragement, the Armadillomon immediately began digging, and within seconds disappeared beneath the sand and out of her sight. LadyDevimon stood there, watching the hole for a moment, her breasts rising and falling as she took deep, heavy breaths. She could feel her core pulsating. She was still angry, but she felt a little bit better now. Not good, but better. Walking over to the ruined cactus, LadyDevimon hefted it into the air, ignoring the needles that tried to pierce her exposed skin, and seconds later, she vanished again into thin air.

* * *

Takato groaned as his eyes fluttered open, and after nearly being blinded by the light of the digital Earth in the sky, he rolled over. The world swam in his vision and he felt himself wretch.

"You okay, Takato?" came Kurata's questioning voice. The boy followed it and found the man sitting in front of him, leaning against a rock, cleaning his glasses. Kurata had a frustrated look upon his face as he concentrated on the spectacles.

"Wha…What happened?"

"Well, we're not in the village any more for starters," said Kurata, breathing onto his glasses before rubbing at them again. "Not that I'm sure that will set your mind at ease…"

"Ah!" Takato tried to rise but instead nearly collapsed again as intense vertigo seized him harshly. "The…The village…!"

"…Is burning to the ground." Kurata indicated the distant plume of smoke with a nod of his head. "And you're in no condition to go there."

"The digimon…and…and there was a human…"

"Yes. I wouldn't be concerned about either of them right now." A disgusted look fell upon Kurata's face as he placed his glasses back on his face and looked through them. "On one hand, Marcus Damon is unlikely to be defeated by anyone in that village—I should know since I've faced him before, and the digimon…well, they're just not worth thinking about."

In a surprising show of strength, Takato surged towards Kurata and grabbed him by the shirt, angry red eyes glaring into Kurata's dull, gray ones.

"Don't talk like that!" he said fiercely. "What…do you know about…digimon? I…my partner…Guilmon…"

"I…see." Kurata brushed Takato's hands off his shirt, causing the boy to collapse back to the ground. "So you were a human partner, just like Marcus. Mislead into thinking that digimon have feelings I take it?" Kurata sighed and shook his head. "I do not understand why your kind keeps insisting on useless bits of data are a…"

"I said…_don't talk like that!"_

A razor sharp claw slid beneath Kurata's chin and the man gulped reflexively as he felt LadyDevimon's hot breath beating upon the back of his neck.

"I advise that you listen to him, meat sack," she hissed. "You see, Takato has a dark side that you do not want to see come out."

Kurata looked down at the boy who had now forced himself onto his feet. He was swaying, but his eyes, exhausted as they looked, had a dangerous fire in them. It took Kurata a moment to realize that the dark clothing he wore was shifting over his body, as though preparing to transform into something else. Something dangerous.

Kurata shrugged nonchalantly. "I'll take your word for it. I've seen children and their temper tantrums enough to not want to test the waters."

LadyDevimon's claw retracted, and the sound of something heavy hitting the ground drew Kurata's and Takato's attention.

_A cactus?_ thought Kurata as he watched LadyDevimon tear into it with her claws, producing something wet and juicy from its insides. "What are you doing?"

"Adding data is the quickest way short of healing programs to recover data and heal from injuries. _Digimon_ data is best, but there are none around. Just this pathetic scrap that clustered together with human-made data." She turned towards Kurata and showed him the fruit that she pulled out. "Feed him."

"What am I, his nurse? I—gah!" Kurata gave a surprised shout as LadyDevimon roughly pulled him forward.

"You are whatever I say you are," she said in a low voice that refused to take no for an answer. _"Feed him."_

"LadyDevimon…"

The sound of Takato's voice caused the female digimon to stiffen angrily. Turning, she glanced at him, seeing him scowling at her with a disapproving look.

_"…Do you remember what I said to you before?"_ came the haunting memory from their fight. Growling, she returned her attention to Kurata and shoved him roughly away.

"I don't trust you," she said. Turning, she moved towards Takato and grabbed him by his shoulder. "Hold still or this will hurt."

"LadyDevimon…" began Takato, trying to brush her off. "I…"

"I said _hold still!"_ she snarled, shifting her grip so that she held him by the back of his head. She tried to force the fruit into his mouth, but the boy refused to let it in, allowing instead its juices to smear against his lips while he struggled to move away. LadyDevimon's lips curled and, after a brief, but fierce inner battle, she drew back. Twin crimson gazes locked to each other as digimon and human read each other's expressions for a clue as to what was going on in the other's mind.

"You promised…"

"And I told you that promises mean _nothing_ to me. I told you that from the moment we met…"

"But you've kept it since then, so why _now?"_

LadyDevimon flexed her claws and took a step backwards.

"Call it a whim," she breathed, a smirk drawing on her face. "After all, _you_ are quite the amusing catch." She turned towards Kurata and tossed him the fruit she still held. "Make sure that he _eats._ Got it?"

"You trust me now?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. LadyDevimon simply narrowed her eyes at him and vanished from sight. The two humans stood there for a moment until Takato slowly, shakily, fell back onto the sandy ground.

"Most…curious," said Kurata. "A very curious specimen indeed…"

"Don't…_call_ her that," grunted Takato, rubbing the back of his head and wincing.

"Awfully defensive of her, aren't you?" Kurata eyed the boy carefully. "Even if she—_it—_had life, she's done nothing that I've seen to warrant such thoughtfulness on your part."

"That—!" Takato cut himself off before switching to a less fierce tone. "That's…none of your business."

Kurata shrugged and adjusted his glasses. "That's your right I suppose. But I've been with you for less than a day, and I can already tell that this is a rather dangerous position to be in. Two team members who fight with each other as much as they fight their enemies. Remind me again, why am I with you?"

Kurata frowned. Now that he thought about it, why _was_ he still with these two?

"It's not ideal," said Takato, his shoulders sagging at the admission. "But…I just…have to believe that…that she…"

"That she what? Is a good digimon at heart?" Kurata sniffed and rubbed his nose. "Don't make me laugh, kid. She isn't even real enough for that."

At that, Takato got to his feet and began to stride off angrily. After no more than a few paces however, his legs gave out on him and he caught himself on the ground. Kurata sighed and shook his head.

"At least eat and rest before you decide to go rushing off into the apocalypse…"

* * *

LadyDevimon's foot crunched on glassed sand as she stepped down into the smoking ruins of the village. Flames still burned here and there, but all fighting had finally come to an end. All was quiet in the village, save for the crackling of burning wood and fire. LadyDevimon sniffed the air and growled.

_Why am I even here?_ she wondered, scanning the village. The scent of digimon and the human she encountered still lingered, and though it was heavily masked by smoke, she could still tell what direction she needed to go.

_"Tell me something LadyDevimon,"_ spoke the memory of her conversation with GranDracmon from the day before. _"How is your progress with young Takato going?"_

LadyDevimon moved through the village, tracing the scent. It was clearer now—more recent and had not yet been fully obscured by the smoke._ This way…_

_"Well, you shouldn't fret over it too much, my dear. Although I find it ironic to say this here of all places, but patience is a virtue, and it is one that we must subscribe to when it comes to this particular human. He, like the Chosen, has a gift locked within him. It is a piece that I'd have on our side of the board to balance things out."_

LadyDevimon swept her wings to the side, blowing smoke out of her path as she marched onwards. Panning her head around, she spotted movement and quickly discovered a human carrying an unconscious and abnormally large Agumon with red training bracers on his back. The human coughed and stumbled, falling to the ground; the Agumon tumbled off his back, not moving.

_"He has a hope right now—the hope to return home one day. To his family. To his friends. It is his greatest strength, but also his greatest weakness. It is what makes him…susceptible. That is your goal, LadyDevimon. Make him susceptible. Make him want to do whatever it takes to get home. And when he fails, make yourself his linchpin…his new reason for being. Once you do that…"_

LadyDevimon stood over the human, touching her long, razor sharp nails against each other. In her mind, she could hear GranDracmon's laughter.

_"Do whatever it takes, LadyDevimon. Make him yours. But take heed. You must be wary about yourself my dear…"_

LadyDevimon frowned and lowered her hand.

_"You promised…"_

"You and your promises," she spat, grabbing hold of Marcus and Agumon. Hauling them up onto her shoulders, she spread her wings and took to the air, leaving the desolated village behind.

* * *

_Finally, it looks like he's resting,_ thought Kurata, glancing at Takato. The boy shifted uncomfortably in his sleep, groaning slightly. _Although it doesn't look like rest is helping him much._

"You really are an idiot, aren't you?" Kurata asked aloud, not expecting an answer. The boy shifted again, his brow furrowing as he groaned again.

"R-Rika…" he muttered under his breath, causing Kurata to raise an eyebrow. The boy tossed and turned a few more times before abruptly snapping awake, gasping for air. Kurata raised an eyebrow.

"Bad dreams?"

"Huh?" Takato blinked in surprise, as though startled by Kurata's presence. After a moment, he shook his head and rubbed his eyes. "Yeah. Just…bad dreams. Funny, huh?"

_Weird kid,_ thought Kurata. "I hope you don't mind, but I would like to know some things about GranDracmon. I hope you don't mind."

"Hm?" Takato glanced at Kurata, his eyes looking as though they were in a daze. A second later the look disappeared through sheer force of will, and Takato adjusted himself. "Oh. Yeah! Sure. Um…ask away."

"For starters, what sort of digimon is he?"

"Um…well, he's a dark digimon. He's pretty powerful, but I'm afraid that's all I know about him. He doesn't talk about himself much, and none of the stuff on digimon back home had much information on him either."

Kurata stared at the boy with a disappointed expression. "And yet you trust him."

"Well…" Takato looked embarrassed. "He's…helped me out a lot. He's been working on a way to get me home…"

"What has he had to say about that?" asked Kurata.

"Just that it has something to do with my being dead."

"I'm afraid that I don't fully understand what that means for us right now. You and I…we're both here, and yet you say that we're dead. I don't _feel_ dead."

"I don't really get it either. The show was always a little vague about that sort of thing."

"Show?"

"Oh, right. GranDracmon said something about you being from a different world. Um…well, where I'm from, digimon is a franchise…for the most part. It's also pretty real. They got some of the details wrong, like the digital world, but they sure got the Dark Ocean right. Not to mention LadyDevimon's personality…" Takato's expression fell a little at the mention of the demonic digimon, and he quickly moved on. "Anyway, I read a lot of stuff about digimon when I was back home. The Dark Ocean was always a mysterious place, and not much was revealed about it. The only thing that we knew for sure was that it was a place where bad digimon went when they died."

_Interesting… _"We're…" Kurata paused and glanced at himself distastefully. _"You're_ not a digimon, so what were you doing there?"

"I died in the digital world. I was fighting a friend who had…lost all control and that was the last thing I remember." Takato's eyes became distant and somber. "I can only guess where my partner is. He wasn't with me when I entered the Dark Ocean. I'm hoping he's alive somewhere, scarfing down on bread and being happy. At least I know for sure that some of my friends are still alive out there. It means that they made it out of that mess." Takato's expression softened and a small smile touched his lips.

"But back to GranDracmon," said Kurata. "Even though I don't believe that digimon are real enough…"

"Hey, that's something I've been meaning to ask you; what's up with that? You remind me a lot of a friend I had who thought that digimon were nothing but data. They're not!"

"Pardon me, but I'd like to stay focused here. GranDracmon…" Kurata paused to take off his glasses and wipe them down again. "You trust him."

Takato hesitated. "Well…maybe."

"You don't sound so sure. Aren't digimon all 'nice' and 'good' to people like you?"

Takato scowled at the man. "I've seen my fair share of bad digimon—more in the Dark Ocean than I'd care to count. I know that not all digimon are good. It's just…GranDracmon took me in. He wasn't the only one, but he offered me a way home and he's stuck to it so far. That means something in the Dark Ocean. Digimon there are more concerned with…satisfying themselves." Takato shuddered visibly, and Kurata couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at that, but chose not to comment further on that particular subject.

"So why hasn't he sent you home already?"

Takato opened his mouth to reply, but quickly snapped it shut. Furrowing his brow, he got to his feet, his black shirt extending itself over his arm and forming a solid, ebon lance. Kurata was just about to ask him what was going on when he felt an alarm go off in his mind. 'Alarm' was the best way he could describe it as he felt a prickling surge throughout his body, flooding him with a sense of urgency. Before he knew it, he too was on his feet, quickly looking around.

"Did you feel it?" asked Takato. "There's someone out here with…"

A shadow fell over the pair and a second later Takato and Kurata both dove to the side. Sand exploded all around them, sending cacti remains flying in every direction. Rolling to the side, Takato got to his feet.

_Not good! This is _not_ good! I don't think I can handle another summon this soon…_

The cloud of sand began to settle, and a low, guttural growl emerged from the throat of a decidedly large animal. Its shape was still obscured behind the cloud, but it was becoming rapidly obvious what had come crashing in on them. Takato felt himself shake in realization, struggling to prevent his rectum from emptying its contents into his pants.

It was large and distinctly animal-like, standing on all fours with great, broad, commanding shoulders. Diamond-shaped shadows stuck outwards from its head, and twin, curved, pointed objects descended downwards like long, vicious fangs. This last gave Takato all the evidence he needed to identify the digimon.

_Oh no… A SaberLeomon…_

A gust of wind blew across the dessert, blasting away the cloud, revealing the large, gold and red furred digimon for all to see. Its bright blue eyes stared at him piercingly before shifting over towards Kurata, who simply sat there on the ground, gaping in astonishment.

"The scent of the Demon Lord lies with _you…"_ SaberLeomon growled, stalking towards Kurata. Immediately Takato dashed forward, a crimson sphere materializing in one hand while blue electricity ran the length of his black lance.

"Kurata! Get aw—!"

That was as far as Takato got before SaberLeomon, faster than the eye could see, spun around and slapped him with one mighty swipe of his great paw. Takato flew through the air, wind rushing out of his lungs as stars exploded across his vision, and then he hit the ground _hard._ Takato gasped, struggling to regain his breath, but for the moment, his lungs refused to cooperate.

_And he was being easy on me…_ thought Takato in amazement.

Kurata in the meantime was backing up, his hands raised in a warding gesture.

"Come on…come on…any time now Belphemon…" he muttered under his breath. Although he felt stronger than he did in his old, human body, he knew that what strength he picked up was no match for the Mega level lion. Although he doubted Takato was any paramount example of power, having seen him in battle, using first a Mega level body and now using techniques that no human could be capable of on their own, he had an idea that the boy was hardly anything to sneeze at. Never mind that he had seen the animal on more than one occasion. SaberLeomon was _indeed_ a creature of strength and power.

_Belphemon…aren't you inside of me?_ he asked himself. No answer came, and the SaberLeomon drew closer…

A blast of blue light shot up into the sky, and suddenly the powerful form of ChaosGallantmon rose to his feet, his black lance, Balmung, pointed directly at the lion. His gold eyes locked with SaberLeomon as the creature turned towards him.

"I don't want to hurt you," said ChaosGallantmon, his lance not wavering a bit. "But if I have to, I will. So I will say this only once: _back off!"_

SaberLeomon eyed ChaosGallantmon warily and began to circle towards him in a predatory manner. ChaosGallantmon took a step to the side. Within a dark blue data sphere, Takato grunted, feeling the strain that came with holding the form.

_This…isn't good. I can't hold this form for very long. I have to end this quickly…_

SaberLeomon sniffed the air and crouched down briefly before leaping at the dark knight, catching him by surprise. Swinging his lance around, Takato slammed its side into the lion's skull, sending it crashing to the side. The beast was up on its feet within seconds. Its mane rose and a series of needles flew outwards.

**"Twin Fang!"** SaberLeomon shouted, and ChaosGallantmon brought his shield to bear, easily deflecting the oncoming needles. A second later he grunted as the lion smashed into him, knocking down. Not wasting any time, SaberLeomon lunged over the rim of the shield, his great fangs aiming towards the knight's throat. Throwing himself to the side as best as he could with the lion's weight bearing down on him, Takato winced as the beast's fangs instead tore into his shoulder guard, ripping it off.

_Going to have to time this just right…_

Light flashed and in an instant, ChaosGallantmon's body disappeared, replaced by the much smaller form of Takato. SaberLeomon's feet hit the ground where the knight had previously been, startled by the suddenness of the change. Light flared again, and ChaosGallantmon's body rematerialized as Takato lunged upwards, bowling into SaberLeomon's face with his great shield. One of the beast's fangs cracked from the impact and it leapt backwards to escape the blow. Panting heavily, ChaosGallantmon circled the lion, trying to recover and find an opening through which he could easily attack.

_So…so tired,_ Takato gasped. _My arms…they feel like lead. I don't know how long I can keep this up. LadyDevimon's right. This form takes too much out of me to be really useful. Even with all the training she's done with me, I can never hold it for very long._

Takato steadied himself and focused. SaberLeomon looked to be favoring one of his paws. An injury?

_Might be a trap, but I have to take it!_ With that, ChaosGallantmon charged forward.

"Hey kid!" shouted Kurata from the side. "Look out! It's a tra—!"

**"Fist of the Beast King!"**

An energy blast resembling a lion's face suddenly slammed into him, and ChaosGallantmon crashed to the ground, his body rapidly shrinking back down to his human form of Takato. Takato gasped, feeling suddenly that much weaker now from the loss of his Mega form, but he rolled to the side, trying to take stock of the situation.

"Wha…who…?" Takato blinked, feeling as though all hope had just shattered in him. Lining the camp all around them was a massive number of digimon that Takato knew all too well.

Bodies of solid, scarred muscle flexed in the light of the digital Earth, and sharp steel glinted. Golden locks of hair streamed out behind them in the wind, and cat-like tails flicked through the air.

_An army of Leomon…_ Takato breathed, completely awed at the sight. _No way…_

"The Pride of Courage stands ready to defend the digital world from your kind," growled SaberLeomon from behind Takato. "This time, you will _not_ be able to escape your prison."

Rearing backwards, SaberLeomon let loose a roar and fired a volley of needles at Takato and Kurata. Takato raised his arms uselessly to ward off the attack, crying out in pain as they found purchase in his skin. Dizziness seized him immediately, and the next thing he knew the ground was rushing up to greet him. A second later, he hit the ground, and lost all sense of the world around him.

* * *

A/N: And that wraps up this chapter. The Pride of Courage came from an idea I've had about the nature of the digimon that captured Belphemon's digi-egg and sealed it away. Its door was marked by the Crest of Courage, and I figured that in order to construct something that massive there had to be a group of digimon dedicated to combating the Demon Lords much like the Virus Busters group are described as doing. Since the Crest of Courage seems to be a well-known symbol (no doubt from the adventures of the Adventure group) it made sense that it would be adopted by digimon as something to rally around and identify their holdings with. The use of Leomon and his evolved forms was a preference on my part, as Leomon to me was a strong example of a digimon that fit the description of courage to the bill (often paying for it with his life), and since he's based on a lion, calling the group a 'Pride' seemed like the only thing to do.

Next chapter we'll be returning to the real world and the plot that follows. :P

'Till then.

-Crazyeight

* * *

9


	31. Eye of the Mind: Part 1

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.

Revival

Chapter: 31/ the Eye of the Mind: Part 1

Jeri Katou passed through the main gates of her school, a small, contented smile on her face. She hummed softly, a short, happy tune, her feet all but skipping merrily on the ground.

"Do you have a reason to be happy, Jeri?"

The brown haired girl froze in her tracks and turned her bright smile on a group of girls approaching her from behind. One of them standing at the front of the crowd tilted her head slightly to one side that reminded Jeri of Renamon, and fixed her with a bored, but questioning gaze.

"Just some good news, Nako," said Jeri, still smiling. The girl, Nako Yamamoto, made a _tsking_ sound and took a step towards Jeri. She was a large girl, standing almost a full head taller than, with brown hair that went down just past her shoulders. She folded her arms over her chest and looked down at Jeri, her dark brown eyes narrowing.

"Is that so?" Nako asked. Jeri nodded.

"Yeah. Ryo's coming back today."

At that, Nako's eyebrows heightened, sparking in curiosity and eagerness.

"Really? Ah…" Nako coughed. "…I mean, is that right? So where is he? Aren't the two of you always _clinging_ to each other?"

"Ah…" Jeri's cheeks bloomed slightly red and she took a conscious step backwards. "We…we don't…our relationship isn't like that…"

"Half the school thinks otherwise!" shouted one of the girls from the group behind Nako. Nako shot a sharp glare in her direction, silencing her.

"I…apologize for Raina's outburst. Anyway, you'll let me know when Ryo shows up, won't you? I'd like the chance to say hi to him."

Patting Jeri on the shoulder, Nako turned and with a nod of her head, headed off. Jeri found herself breathing a sigh of relief and looked over at the main entrance to the building with a sense of nostalgia. It had been three years since she entered this school. Three years, but there were days where she found herself wishing for the old days when she had been in the same school as Takato and the others. Things were much simpler then, never mind the fact that most of her friends were there as well. Here it wasn't as simple, nor was she surrounded by as many friends. Here it was just her and…

"Look out below!"

_Ryo!_

Jeri's eyes sparkled as she looked up to find the flying figure of Cyberdramon come soaring in for a landing. The dragon warrior touched down, and Ryo gracefully leapt off his partner's shoulder, swinging his school bag over his own shoulder and brushed some hair out of his face. His crystal-blue eyes met Jeri's amber ones and he met her with a smile.

"Sorry I'm late," he said, his voice containing just a trace of a laugh. Jeri giggled and bowed respectfully towards him, causing Ryo to raise an eyebrow.

"I really wish you wouldn't do that," Ryo said, part of his jovialness disappearing now.

"Sorry," she apologized. "Taking after Takato now?"

"More like trying to keep Cyberdramon in line." Ryo patted his partner's armored form and the dragon growled slightly. "For some reason he wanted to head down to Shinjuku to fight. It took me most of the night to calm him down and make sure that everything really was all right back home." Turning, Ryo nodded to his partner, and Cyberdramon spread his wings and took to the air, leaving the two human teens alone in the school courtyard.

Jeri tilted her head to one side as she watched him go. "Cyberdramon has good senses, doesn't he?"

"Yeah, but my digivice kept telling me that everything was fine. Henry confirmed it for me when I called him."

"I…see." Jeri glanced up at Cyberdramon worryingly. "Anything new from Milleniummon then?"

Ryo hesitated before answering. "I…let him loose in the digital world for a moment."

Jeri blinked, not expecting that. "What happened?"

Ryo sighed and rubbed the back of his head. "I put in all the details with my report to Yamaki, so I hope you don't mind if I abridge it for you. They've questioned and cross referenced me on it so much that I wouldn't be surprised if _I_ went a little crazy." Ryo chuckled, seeing the worried look on Jeri's face. "Sorry. Bad joke. Anyway, we were fighting against a Mega level digimon that had gone out of control. None of us were strong enough to handle it, so…I made a gamble and it worked."

"Ryo…" Reaching out, Jeri placed one hand on Ryo's arm and gave it a soft squeeze. "I'm not sure what to say. Did he…do anything else? Did he want anything? You're always telling me that Milleniummon wants something from you—to be your partner, but he's been so quiet."

"Well, he tried to make his move when we all bioforce digivolved, remember?"

Jeri nodded. "I still don't know what to make of that. He came to me to help you—_us—_and then things returned to normal when everything was said and done. You've told me about your past…"

"…And back then you told me that he changed." Ryo ran a hand through his hair and sighed. "But after everything I went through with him, I can't help but wonder. He _did_ say that I had to pay a price for his help."

"Oh." Jeri's hand slipped down from his arm and into his own, their fingers twining around each other. Ryo glanced at her with a surprised look on his face, and she smiled at him in return. "Well…like I've told you before, I'll be here whenever you need help. We'll _all_ be there for you."

Ryo scratched the side of his head, feeling a little uncertain, not to mention embarrassed by Jeri's sudden display of…what exactly? He couldn't tell for sure.

_These past three years,_ he thought. _Ever since the Christmas party when she kissed me underneath the mistletoe…nah. _Before_ then even, she's been…acting weird towards me. Could she be…?_ Ryo let the thought drift for a couple seconds before shaking his head mentally. _Nah. Couldn't be._

"What would I ever do without you, Jeri?" he asked, smiling at the girl. Jeri returned his smile and gave his hand a soft squeeze.

* * *

Nako Yamamoto glared venomously at the pair from the other side of the courtyard. Her fingers tapped against her arms before tightening against her sleeves.

"Your relationship "isn't like that", huh?" she said sarcastically. Her eyes narrowed. _"Liar."

* * *

_

"Thank you for coming," said Itsuya to Janyu, Mayumi, Suzie, and Lopmon as they entered his office, bowing respectfully to the two adults before inclining his head towards their daughter. "I do apologize for taking time out of your day today—especially on a day that you have off young lady." Itsuya offered the girl a comforting smile.

"Um…" Janyu shifted uncomfortably and placed one hand on his daughter's shoulder. "Thank you for seeing my daughter. We leave her in your care."

"You have my assurance that I will do everything I can to help her."

Lopmon shifted in her position on top of Suzie's head. "Should I stay or go?"

Itsuya smiled at the small rabbit. "You may stay. As embarrassing as it is to admit this in front of you all, we're going to be entering uncharted territory, so much of this will be experimental. I've read the reports on digimon/children interactions, so I believe that it's important for you to stay, but if you don't feel comfortable, or if your partner feels the need to discuss this alone…"

"It's okay," said Suzie, placing her hands on her partner's ears. "She can decide for herself." Suzie flashed Itsuya a proud smile, scratching Lopmon's fur gently. Lopmon's worried expression softened at the treatment and after a moment she nodded.

"I'll stay."

"All right," said Janyu. "If that's all…" Taking his wife by the shoulder, the two adults departed the room, Suzie and Lopmon watching them go for a moment. Once the door closed with a loud click, the two turned towards Itsuya who indicated the two chairs in front of his desk.

"If you may…"

"I thought there was a long, reclining chair or something that you head doctors put your patients on," said Suzie pointedly.

Itsuya chuckled. "Do you watch much television?" he asked, moving behind his desk while Suzie took a chair and Lopmon hopped down into her lap.

"A little. Why do you ask?"

"Just a curiosity," replied Itsuya. "It's just, the vast majority of patients I have had that ask that question, usually have seen it on TV."

"Oh. But you _do_ have one, right?"

"I haven't had the chance to get it down here. I've only started this job after all. Habitually, I take a long time to transport any of my belongings here. I have lots of time for meetings such as this, but I'm forgetful of the little odds and ends that usually clutter people's offices. Family photos, degrees, awards…even clocks."

"You're wearing a watch," observed Suzie.

Itsuya smiled. "Indeed I am. I suppose you could say that's one of my failings."

"How is that a failing?"

"Only in that I ignore every other small thing except that. Well, and my wallet." Itsuya patted one hand on his pants pocket.

"Are we going to start talking now?"

"What would you like to talk about?"

Suzie blinked. "I…don't understand."

Itsuya shrugged. "Most forms of psychoanalysis use conversation to get the stream of thought going. The mind reveals…interesting things about itself based on the topics that it brings out or lets slip through. It's a method of investigating the mind, and can be used to help treat psychological problems. It's become something of a joke in my circles when you say one thing, but end up really meaning your father."

"Don't you mean your mother?" asked Suzie, smirking at the man. Itsuya grinned.

"Which might tell you a thing or two about me. Some of the process involves—even stresses—the importance of making the patient as comfortable as possible to draw out their inner conflicts." Itsuya leaned back in his chair and tapped one finger on the arm, giving the room a critical look. "Unfortunately, this place is not at all ideal for that. We lack the psychiatrist's couch, as you noted earlier. In either case, we'll be starting now, so…" Itsuya leaned forward. "…why don't you tell me a little something about yourself."

Suzie shifted in her chair, glancing away. "Don't you already know a little bit about me?" she asked. "Hypnos has files on us after all, and you know the reason why I'm here."

"Yes. They tell me things about you, but at the same time they don't tell me anything about you. Reports are just words to me, and can be filled with bias. I have no experience talking to you until now, so I can tell you that right now you are being far more informative than all the pieces of paper in the world on you." Itsuya placed his hands beneath his chin. "How did you and Lopmon first meet?"

"I was sent to the digital world," replied Suzie, rubbing her hands through the soft fur of her partner's head. "I convinced Daddy to take me to the park, and while I was playing on top of one of the rides…um—a slide if I remember right—I saw Terriermon flying above me through a portal. I wanted to go to him, and then the next thing I knew I was in the digital world.

"I was alone for a little while—got shot at by an angry Kiwimon and lost my jacket too—and then I wound up in front of the gate that Lopmon was guarding. Only she wasn't Lopmon then. She was one of the Devas, Antyalmon. She helped me for a bit, trying to find Terriermon…" Suzie laughed. "Can't say that I was too helpful on that. All I had for a description was Terriermon playing a stuffed animal and not moving."

"I see." Itsuya nodded and glanced down at Lopmon. "And what was your reasoning for helping her?"

"I've…always had a soft spot for small things."

"She thought I was moe," giggled Suzie, pinching her partner's cheek. "Well, that's what Kazu says anyway. What does that mean anyway?"

"I suppose you could say it's a protective instinct," said Itsuya. "Mainly towards things that appear vulnerable, and as such instill the desire to comfort or aid them. How would you feel towards a tiny kitten, or, to use a better example, towards Lopmon, if you saw them helpless?"

"Kitten's are cute!" asserted Suzie. "And so is Lopmon," she hastily added. "And I know how I feel about her. Not that she ever really needs my help…"

"Except for the one time," said Lopmon softly.

"That doesn't count!"

"But Suzie! Isn't that why we're here?"

"The boy, Atsuo?" asked Itsuya. "I believe he is the cause behind your recent difficulties?"

"He's a stupid boy who doesn't like digimon or anything associated with them," she growled. "He attacked me and Lopmon for no reason, and Lopmon couldn't fight him back because he's a human! If he were a digimon though…" Suzie's voice trailed off and Itsuya raised an eyebrow.

"Yes? If he were a digimon…?"

"It doesn't matter," said Suzie. "And that's not the right thing to say anyway."

"Why?"

"Because…" Suzie frowned. "He's human. He's a person."

"Does that mean he's more important than Lopmon?"

"No!" Suzie's hands tightened briefly in Lopmon's fur, causing the rabbit to grimace in pain. Seeing her discomfort, Suzie gave her partner an apologetic look and began smoothing out her fur, trying to alleviate the discomfort she caused her partner. "It's not that he's more important…I think Lopmon is _miles_ more important than Atsuo. It's just that…it's something Henry told me. Digimon can't harm humans, because if they do, then the government might decide that all digimon are bad and take them away from us."

"But if that risk wasn't there…what would you do?"

"Uh…huh?"

"I would like to hear this from you as well, Lopmon. If you weren't...how we say, 'shackled' by the rules currently governing your presence in the real world—unspoken though they might be—what would you do to Atsuo if he were to attack you or, worse yet from your perspective, Suzie?"

Lopmon glanced up at her partner with a concerned expression, uncertain how she should answer the question. Seeing this, Itsuya spoke.

"Please feel free to respond as truthfully as possible. Nothing that is said here will leave this room if you don't feel comfortable speaking."

"It is my duty to defend her and myself," said Lopmon finally. "She is my partner, and I cannot allow any harm to come to her."

"I see. Based on previous actions against digimon—and I would like to repeat that this is based _only_ on actions committed towards hostile digimon and is purely speculative—would that include killing a human being?"

Lopmon did not answer.

"I don't like what you're getting at," said Suzie sharply. "I don't even like that question."

"I'm sorry if it distresses you, but I'm afraid that's just the nature that these conversations can end up taking."

"Then why ask that sort of thing?"

"The human mind is a complex thing, as you've no doubt discovered and will discover even more as you grow older and the world opens up for you. We have impulses that we don't always control or are even aware of having. Sometimes events or people can manipulate what we do and how we feel. Such impulses are also hardwired into us as a result of the pressures that shape us—very little of it is perfect due to the limitations of our bodies designs. When you get right down to it, our bodies aren't exactly designed to exist in the world that we live in now, even with cooperative development playing a part in our evolution. Our savage, violent past still thrives in us. Have you ever been in a situation where adults have told you to not be so rough when playing with other children? Or to not use anything that might involve—no matter how remote—violence?"

"Once," said Suzie. "When I first started school. There were kids who always wrestled and some who always drew cartoons that had big explosions. There were some grownups who didn't like that stuff and told us to not do it."

"Did you know that when animal children, cats for example, play, they are instinctively preparing the skills that they will need to survive after leaving their family?"

"I knew about that from my science class, yeah." Suzie's brow furrowed even deeper in thought. "Hang on. Are you saying that we do that when we're kids?"

"It's a possibility." Itsuya pulled over a sheet of paper, pulled out a marker and began drawing on it. "Biological creatures are born with the instinct to survive and compete for resources. Fighting—even _killing—_you could say are 'natural instincts'. The world was very different in the time before now, where technology has grown to such a degree where people can communicate easily and readily, discovering the inner-workings of their minds, create leisure and think about things that we otherwise might not have had time to think about at all. Even create rules of conduct to suppress the baser instincts that would create unthinking chaos. Everything that makes you who you are when you're born, was to prepare you for a life of survival. In today's day and age, it's not as necessary as it used to be, but it's still there, like the bones of a foot in a whale's fin. But it's natural all the same. How you react to it will spell the difference though."

"The difference between what?" asked Suzie. "I…" Suzie swallowed. "I don't want to hurt anyone."

"No. But there may be times where you'll find yourself in a situation that will surprise you." Itsuya flipped over sheet of paper he had been drawing on and showed it to Suzie. Emblazoned on it was a black hazard sign that caused Suzie to instinctively draw in her breath. "As I understand, the boy behind this symbol, Takato Matsuki, didn't want to hurt anyone either."

"That…!"

"Was an accident. Based on all reports and testimonies, _especially _the digimon known as Impmon, yes. This is a fact. But tell me something: based on what you knew about Takato…what you _know_ about him after all this time, did it surprise you?"

Suzie pulled Lopmon closer to her and tightened her grip. "If what happened then hadn't been so horrible, I'd say it was almost funny that you ask that."

"Oh?"

"The first time I met Takato he was calling our apartment, trying to get a hold of Henry. He got angry with me and yelled at me. I only found out later that that was because Guilmon disappeared then and he really needed Henry's help, but at the time I called him the," Suzie's face scrunched up, as though not liking having to speak the next words, "Angwy Kid."

"I see." Itsuya leaned back and rubbed his chin. "Very interesting…"

* * *

* * *

"There," said Norn as data finished infusing itself into RhodoKnightmon's body. "How do you feel?"

"Much better my Lady," replied the pink armored knight, flexing her wrist experimentally before glancing down at her body. Her armor was whole, she had her arm back, and the pain she experienced at the hands of the rampaging ShineGreymon was gone.

_Even so,_ she thought._ To have lost to a lowborn digimon who fell prey to the powers of darkness—and in the eyes of my Mistress no less—that is utterly impermissible! I must strive to make up for the loss. _LoadKnightmon_ and I together must strive to make up for this loss._

RhodoKnightmon glanced over at her partner, who was standing a short distance off, guarding them. Getting to her feet, she made her way over to him and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"I am fully healed," she said to him in a soothing voice. "You may stand down now."

LoadKnightmon nodded his head, but didn't say anything. RhodoKnightmon sighed mentally, for once wishing that the title of 'Indifferent Warrior' was not something that they both strove for. As much as she hated to admit it, her near death at the hands of ShineGreymon left her with controversial feelings that went against her code as a warrior.

_Is this what changed our predecessor?_ she wondered, removing her hand from her companion. RhodoKnightmon shook her head. Now was not the time to think of such things, least of all anything concerning a digimon who abandoned her duties towards their master.

_Speaking of whom…I have never seen Yggdrasil…cry in front of a human before, let alone beg one to 'stop her'. What could that have been about?_

The question indeed begged answering, but it was not her place to ask. As one, the two knights turned towards Norn and knelt down.

"We are ready and able to resume our duties, Mistress Yggdrasil," said LoadKnightmon. "What are your orders? Shall we continue our surveillance and patrol duties?"

Norn looked at the two digimon thoughtfully and shook her head.

"I'm afraid that the situation has changed for the time being. We are going to have to visit the human world of the Southern Quadrant now."

"The-The Southern Quadrant?" asked RhodoKnightmon, bewildered. "But, my Mistress… It was you who expressly forbid any interference with the human worlds. Digimon who cross over there are considered criminals."

"I am rescinding that ruling for the time being," said Norn. "Suffice to say, with what is happening to the digital world now, we will be required to break numerous established laws in order to save it." Norn frowned and pursed her lips together, looking as though she were fighting something. RhodoKnightmon watched her mistress carefully at this observation. "I can only hope that those powers that are remaining to us will be able to overlook these breechings and lend us aid."

"Should they refuse," said LoadKnightmon solemnly, "they shall feel the taste of the Knighthood's Wrath."

"We shall see," nodded Norn. "For now, let's journey to the remains of the Sovereign Realm."

* * *

Blood red skies that always appeared to threaten storms hung above Norn as she and her Knighthood landed on the shattered, hard ground of the Realm of the Sovereigns. Norn took a look around her, her expression becoming sorrowful as she took in the shattered ruins of the great, spiked mountainous tower that stood before them.

"Sovereigns," she murmured. Taking a step forward, she brought her hand to rest on the broken remains of the South Gate.

_I haven't been here in so long… I apologize for not paying my respects to you sooner. Because of me and my fears, you were all deleted. That was a fate that none of you deserved. You all served me faithfully, and this was how I repaid you. You and the digital world._

"This place is empty," observed LoadKnightmon, glancing around him. "There are no digimon nearby."

"There wouldn't be," replied Norn. "Project X's sweep of this area was most thorough, and the Sovereign's unleashed every ounce of power they had to delete the DexDoruGreymon that were attacking them. Only the most powerful digimon could withstand the power they were unleashing."

"And now they are gone," said LoadKnightmon. "All of them. Sovereigns…servants…even those that merely lived here under their shadow. There are no digimon here. This realm is a grave marker."

"Yes…it is. But you are wrong about _all_ digimon being gone from here. Until now, there was always one digimon that none could touch, always apart but always central to the structure of the digital world."

Raising her hands, Norn's palms glowed with a golden light and she closed her eyes.

"Come forth, my First and Final Servant. Come forth, the _Fifth Sovereign._"

The ground shuddered and shook, causing the two knights to stagger in surprise.

"Mistress—!" began RhodoKnightmon, but Norn shook her head.

"All is all right, my followers. _He_ will be here shortly."

A great crack ran the length of the Sovereign Realm and light burst free from its confines. Tapping one foot against the ground, Norn's metallic wings spread outwards, lifting her into the air where her knights quickly joined her. No sooner had they done so did the ground _lift_ upwards, shattering the former fortress of Zhuqiaomon and swallowing it. The ground continued to rise in all directions for miles around. Peering down, the two knights gasped in surprise as a massive, golden head began to rise from the ground below. Horns sprouted from rubble and red eyes that easily dwarfed them opened. Golden, scale-like armor followed, and stone-like fangs parted. The broken top of Zhuqiaomon's fortress that had previously disappeared rose once more, only to roll off and vanish into the chasm beneath. The creature's head continued to rise, raining rubble everywhere. RhodoKnightmon and LoadKnightmon got into a defensive stance as a deep, guttural growl thundered upon the air and the beast, dragon-like and massive beyond all comprehension, turned towards them.

Norn floated forward, a small, welcoming smile on her face.

"Hello Huanglongmon. It has been a long time."

The great digimon's eyes flashed red.

_"Lord Yggdrasil,"_ he boomed. "_The form may be different, but I recognize you."_ He growled again, and RhodoKnightmon felt his armor reverberate from the sound.

_Wha…What _is_ this beast?_ she stammered, her senses completely overwhelmed by the sense of power she felt radiating off the dragon.

"I am not the only one that has changed," said Norn. The massive dragon's eyes flared red again.

_"The Sovereigns are gone…the Digignomes have crafted Tamers for digimon…Azulongmon's Chosen grow and continue to gain strength…_Sin_ has invaded the land."_ Huanglongmon's eyes narrowed. _"Yes…much has changed indeed."_

"I have a request of you. I need you to open a doorway to the human world that is connected to this gate."

RhodoKnightmon raised an eyebrow and glanced at LoadKnightmon, who returned it. _This_ was unexpected.

_Why does our Mistress require another digimon to open a gateway to the human world?_

_ "Passage to that world—to any human world—is forbidden,"_ thundered Huanglongmon, his crimson eyes focused solely on Norn. His eyes flashed again and he growled under his breath. RhodoKnightmo again felt her armor shiver, and her core, for the briefest of moments, ceased in its pulsing.

"I am well aware of that, Huanglongmon," said Norn. "However, these are special circumstances. Even Azulongmon saw the limitations of that ruling."

_"Indeed…" _Huanglongmon continued to eye Norn for a moment before bowing his head. _"It shall be as you desire."_

Rearing upwards, the massive dragon let loose a powerful roar that caused RhodoKnightmon and LoadKnightmon to scream and their bodies to phase in and out of stability before shattering completely under the pressure of the dragon's power. Closing her eyes, Norn surrendered herself to the thundering roar, and a second later, her body began to break apart.

"You have done well, Last of the Sovereigns," she whispered. "May you continue your service in the place of your creations."

With that, Norn's body shattered completely. Together, with the data shards of her Knighthood, they rose towards the digital representation of the Earth. The sky tore open, revealing a network of wireframes. Norn and her Knighthood's data flowed into it, and a second later, disappeared. The massive tear slammed shut, and Huanglongmon ceased in his bellow.

"Until your return, Norn…Yggdrasil…Lord ENIAC." With a deep, throaty growl, Huanglongmon began to push himself up from out of the ground. Rock shattered, splitting all the way across the landscape towards the remaining towers of the Sovereign digimon who once ruled the barren land.

He had work to do.

* * *

A rock clinked against the pole of the jungle gym as Atsuo sat on a swing, an angry expression on his face. A short distance away his two friends from his class—no, his _former_ friends from his _former_ class—watched him with concern. He glared at them venomously.

_Let them watch,_ he thought bitterly._ How could they side with that Tamer and lie about me like that? Who needs them? Bunch of asses! Traitors!_

Atsuo grated his teeth together and after one last look, one of the two boys approached him, getting ready to speak. He wouldn't have it though, and within a second was surging off the swing, his hands grabbing rocks from off the ground.

_"Get out of here!"_ he shouted. So enraged was he that he didn't notice the spit that flew from his mouth, nor did he notice that the rocks he had picked up were already moving through the air at breakneck speed. The boy who had approached him cried out and raised his arms reflexively to protect himself from the rocks that struck him. Not that it did him much good—_Atsuo_ that is, as the rocks were far too small to do any real damage. But it got his point across all the same. Within short order, the two boys were running from the playground, leaving Atsuo breathing heavily on the playground, his body shaking with barely controlled rage.

_I hate them!_ his mind shouted fiercely. _I hate them! I hate _everyone! Whirling about, Atsuo flung his head upwards and let loose a powerful shriek, pouring his frustration into the sky. How could things have turned out like this? Everything that had happened to him—Suzie attacking him, getting kicked out of his class, never mind the debacle when his _parents_ found out—all because of some pathetic lie cooked up by that girl. That _Tamer._

Suzie Wong.

_This is all her fault,_ he seethed. _I don't care what happens or how I do it, but I'm going to make you _pay!

He glared up at the sky, attempting to _will_ the heavens to do something—beseeching the gods of old to act in accordance to his desire and rain vengeance upon the source of his anger. This could not be tolerated! Liars always went punished! His mother had told him so ever since he was a little kid, so why—?

A flash of light tore across the sky, and for the briefest of moments, Atsuo swore that he saw a grid-like pattern cross it. Before he could even think about what it could have been, his concentration was broken by a series of yellow ribbons that wrapped around his body and clamped his mouth shut.

_"Mmmph!"_ Atsuo struggled against the ribbons, but they were surprisingly strong, resisting his attempts to tear through them with ease. It felt as though he were fighting the hold of a wrestler. As though to drive the point home, the ribbons tightened their grip on him, and black spots burst upon his field of vision, forcing his struggles to cease.

Shining particles fell in front of him, and coalesced into the form of a youthful girl wearing what appeared to be a maid's hat, a long dress, and steel wings protruding from her back.

"I am exceedingly sorry, young Atsuo," said the girl, looking at him full in the eyes. "But I'm afraid that I'm going to have to use you."

For a moment, Atsuo looked into the girl's eyes, captivated by them before his mind finally caught up with the situation and he resumed his struggles. The ribbons tightened again, and within short order darkness descended over his vision, and he knew no more.

* * *

A/N: A lot of advancement this time. For the first part, I wanted to touch on Ryo and Jeri's relationship, as it will have an important impact on the story much later, and for some parts I wanted to show a bit of their school life together. Nako Yamamoto is one, though not enough of her has shown the full extent of what their experience is like, but that'll develop as the story continues.

And finally we see Suzie interact with Itsuya! Some of this details bits of my thoughts on human behavior, evolution, personal experience, and a basic psychiatry class that I took (to name but a few things, including various readings I did for completely different classes). I can't vouch for anything that was said by Itsuya as being anything remotely 'psychiatrist-like' as the last time I ever spoke to someone in a similar department, a school councilor, was back in the fifth grade (a really long time ago), and from what I've read for class, while the method Itsuya used is legit, it doesn't sound anywhere close to being as good or authoritative.

Huanglongmon. Also known as Fanglongmon (though I prefer Huanglongmon since it makes him sound more regal and commanding when considering he's the Fifth Sovereign). This is a digimon that isn't really seen much in the fandom outside of his depictions in the card game and (I think) magazines. He's described as 'immense', dwarfing even the Sovereigns who were already pretty large (Zhuqiaomon outclassed MegaGargomon in the size department, and Azulongmon outdoes _him_ as well), so I tried to work that in when he made his big appearance (lame pun is bad, yes). Unfortunately, this is one of those moments where I think a visual would have worked better than just words since, well, words really don't do it justice in this case. But that's my shot at it. At any rate, for anyone wondering why Norn called him up to go to the human world when, as she's Yggdrasil, she's capable of doing it herself…let's just say that she has her reasons for it. :P

And Atsuo has been nabbed, kicking off the start of the story that will end the Suzie arc that has been going on for…how long now? Ugh. Less than Human _almost_ made more progress than this in terms of plot advancement in my opinion. Hopefully the story will proceed at a bit of a faster pace from here on out. :P

'Till next chapter then.

-Crazyeight

* * *

* * *

10


	32. Eye of the Mind: Part 2

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.

Revival

Chapter: 32/ the Eye of the Mind: Part 2

Lopmon shifted in her spot in Suzie's lap, a slight frown furrowing across her face. Sensing the digimon's apparent discomfort, Suzie rubbed her partner's head while looking down at her with concern.

"Is everything all right?" she asked. Lopmon paused before shaking her head.

"I'm fine. I just thought…no. Never mind." Looking up at Itsuya she said, "Please continue."

"Very well," nodded Itsuya. "Now, why don't you talk to me about your relationship with your family?"

* * *

_Sometimes I just have no idea what it is I'm here for at all,_ thought Lumemon as he trudged down the streets of Shinjuku, a pair of plastic bags in his hands filled to the brim with groceries. Grumbling slightly, he shifted the bags in his hands into a more comfortable position.

_It's not that I don't mind getting groceries for Noriko's mother while she's at work—it saves time for her and I get to go out—but it just feels so bothersome. This isn't my whole purpose for being in the real world._ Lumemon frowned._ Although what that purpose is beyond protecting Noriko I have no idea. Just what is it that a digimon is supposed to do with a human partner anyway? According to that Monster Maker, Shibumi, I was naturally drawn to Noriko because, apparently, digimon are drawn to the creative elements that belong to children and can use them to digivolve. But is that all there is to our partnership? I don't want that to be my only reason for existing, especially in a world where digivolution isn't the overall driving force in my life._

Lumemon looked around him, eyeing the humans that meandered down the streets, talking to either each other directly or on their cell phones. None of them paid so much as the slightest attention to him. On the whole, Lumemon did not feel the constant state of threat that pervaded the digital world. True, the human world had dangers, and Hypnos had proven capable of disabling digimon in the past, he felt comparatively safe compared to the digital world, which was full of creatures that were oft extremely powerful. Humans were weak physically and relied heavily on their technology to defeat an adversary.

_The most basic of which isn't even a real threat to Rookie level digimon,_ thought Lumemon. _Though looking down at myself, no one would really see a digimon, but another kid just like every other human child out there._

That was another thing Lumemon never fully understood. Just why _did_ Noriko insist that he disguise himself like a regular while running errands? Wearing human clothes, hiding his wings…it didn't make much sense to him, not to mention that he found the clothes uncomfortable and restricting. The anti-digimon movements hadn't swelled in their ranks and their danger had abated more or less as time passed. The other digimon were allowed to move about freely and in spite of their more bizarre and alien-looking appearance, they did not provoke much of a panic unless it was someone who wasn't used to the rigors of Shinjuku.

_Even _Crusadermon_ has no trouble visiting stores and the like. Well…not all of them, but still. Her presence isn't, how we say, looked down upon. Especially after that one time that she saved a baby a year and a half ago. Me? What do I get? I walk around, pretending to be human and in most company Noriko's adopted cousin, and all I get is some human girl behind a checkout counter making mooneyes at me. What's that about? Crazy humans and their crazy customs…_

Lumemon took a turn down into the direction of the park, wanting to be as far away from the crowd of people as possible and in a more comfortable atmosphere. Out of all the places he visited, he favored the park the most. The same could also be said about the rest of the digimon as well, leaving Lumemon to wonder if that had something to do with the environment they all developed in.

_For most of our lives, we digimon lived in forests, fields, deserts, and mountains—very little of which contained cities. You had to find a more civilized level of the digital world to get to one of those, and even then, they were few and far between._

Grimacing, Lumemon wriggled his shoulder blades. _Can't wait to get out of this shirt. This thing makes my back do nothing but itch. Seriously, how _do_ humans stand wearing these things?_

Lumemon's eyes lit up as he finally spotted the path that led straight to the park. Smiling, he picked up his pace. Soon, he would be home, and then he could get out of these ridiculous clothes and stretch his wings…

A shock jolted through his mind, nearly drawing Lumemon to a screeching halt, but the feeling was gone almost as soon as it had come, leaving the angelic digimon furrowing his brow, perplexed by what he just felt.

_That…was weird. For a second there, I could have sworn that…nah. Couldn't be. Could it?_

His senses had been specific. For the briefest of moments, he swore that he felt a digimon, or a group of them, breach through the barriers of the real world, but for whatever reason the feeling had vanished rapidly. And what was more, it felt as though the digimon had bio-emerged a short ways off in the park.

_Could it have been…?_

His eyes rising, Lumemon gasped as he saw a small wisp of mist rising above the tree line, just barely visible. Not even thinking about whoever saw him, two pairs of angelic wings materialized out of his back, and Lumemon took to the air, grocery bags in hand.

* * *

"I am exceedingly sorry, young Atsuo," said Norn, looking at the boy as his eyes rolled up into the back of his head and he fell forward, unconscious. Yet despite this, the boy's body continued to twitch, as though still attempting to escape.

"Quite the fiery spirit, this one," chuckled one of the knight's to Atsuo's right.

"Be silent, RhodoKnightmon," snapped Norn, casting the knight a glare. "We must work quickly here. I can only prevent our presence from being detected for so long before we return to the digital world. I cannot afford any distractions." Returning her gaze back to Atsuo, Norn placed her hands on either side of the boy's head. A soft glow fell upon his body and she closed her eyes. "Yes…Prometheus was right. This one will do quite…_nicely_ for his plans. We must hurry up and return to the digital world before we are detected."

"My mistress," said LoadKnightmon, his head snapping upwards. "A digimon approaches."

"Hmmm…yes." Norn glanced over her shoulder. "So we are. And I think I know by _who."_

A flap of wings and a blast of shining light filled the air, causing the two digimon and Norn to cover their eyes. A figure cloaked in white light fell amongst them, and the sound of something slicing filled the air. A second later, the light was gone, and Norn glanced down at the two knight's to find that Atsuo was gone, leaving only a group of shredded ribbons behind. Turning as one, all three heads looked up to see the angelic figure of Lumemon flying away with the unconscious Atsuo in his arms.

"Take them," said Norn in a low, firm voice. Her eyes narrowed dangerously. "Take them _both."_

LoadKnightmon and RhodoKnightmon swiftly vanished from sight, immediately chasing after their prey.

* * *

"This…is not good," muttered Lumemon to himself as he cast a glance over his shoulder. He could not see the two knight's anymore, and he knew from experience that that did not bode well. A second later, his suspicions were confirmed as a yellow ribbon wrapped itself around his neck and pulled taught, causing him to choke in surprise and nearly drop the unconscious human he carried.

"This one is not for you," spoke up the voice of LoadKnightmon as he materialized in front of Lumemon. Reaching out the knight plucked the human from Lumemon's failing grasp and disappear before he could even react. Lumemon gasped for air and made a futile attempt to grab at the spot where LoadKnightmon had been, but a sharp tug on the ribbon wrapped around his neck brought his mind to bear on more immediate concerns.

"Now, now," laughed RhodoKnightmon from behind him. "Shouldn't you be more worried about _yourself_ right now?"

Snarling, Lumemon spun around and chucked the grocery bags he had in his hands at the knight, causing her to blink in surprise beneath her helmet as they smashed against her. The 'attack' was useless as it did no damage, but the unexpectedness of it caused her to loosen her grasp on her sash. Lumemon gasped, pulling in much needed oxygen before slipping out of his noose, his body blurring as he thrust as much of his power as he could into his speed. Reappearing before RhodoKnightmon, white light burst into his hands and extended outwards, forming a cruciform shaped blade of energy.

**"Cross Guard,"** boomed Lumemon as he brought his attack down in an upward arch, aiming towards RhodoKnightmon's helm. The knight scoffed with disappointment and deftly caught the attack with one hand. With a quick twist, she shattered the blade of energy and brought her Pile Bunker shield crashing down on Lumemon's skull. Lights exploded in the angel's mind, and he nearly lost consciousness right there and then. Sparkling data flew free from his mouth, but he forced his wings to keep him aloft.

"Awfully stubborn for a Rookie," grumbled RhodoKnightmon. Spinning, she smashed a foot into his back, sending him crashing into the park below, causing a fearsome explosion that rocked the ground. As the dust settled, RhodoKnightmon found Lumemon lying in a crater, groaning softly. The knight settled down gracefully next to him, triumph in her pose.

"Running or fighting, you Rookies should know that there is nothing that you can do to stop a Mega. There was only _one_ digimon of your level that was ever a threat and while you may look like him, you are _not_ him."

"Not anymore," came the voice of Norn as she approached the two. RhodoKnightmon turned towards her mistress, tilting her head to one side questioningly.

"You mean…?"

"Once, but not any longer. Either way, we cannot allow him to be here, not after having seen us capture Atsuo. I'm afraid we're going to have to jumpstart our plans for him sooner than was intended. I _hope_ that this can be compensated for."

"As long as you prevent yourselves from being discovered," came the voice of Prometheus as he stepped out from behind a tree, "then anything can be compensated for." The man took a step forward, smiling while RhodoKnightmon took up a defensive position in front of Norn.

"Stand down," Norn said, waving a hand dismissively at the knight. RhodoKnightmon raised an eyebrow beneath her helm, but backed off as ordered. "Even with that, you know that this," Norn spread her arms, indicating the devastation that had been wrought in the brief battle, "will be easily noticeable."

Prometheus chuckled. "I'll take care of it. Now why don't you head back to the digital world? We cannot afford to take many risks this early in the game."

Frowning, Norn nodded, and with a snap of her fingers, LoadKnightmon appeared next to her with his charge wrapped once again in his body sashes.

"Until we meet again," she said succinctly. Prometheus nodded and smiled.

"And perhaps then you can tell me why you awoke the Fifth Sovereign. But that's until then."

With that, a fog descended over the field, and Norn, with her companions and charges, digimon and human both, vanished back to the digital world. Prometheus stood there silently for a moment, surveying the carnage before clapping his hands together and taking a deep breath.

"Wax on," he whispered under his breath. Rubble shifted slightly at his words and began to draw towards the center of the crater. His grin widened. "Wax off."

* * *

_Love…_ Crusadermon stood atop the flagpole of her partner's school, her gaze fixated on the classroom belonging to her partner. _It's just a word, but…what is it about it that causes people to draw together?_

The question had been on her mind for as long as she had been partnered with Ayaka, but it was never something that she dared approach her with, sensing that the girl had little knowledge of the subject herself. The fact that she was experimenting with Kenta allowed the former Royal Knight time to observe its effects so that she could draw her own conclusions. Yet, after three years of watching, she did not believe that she was any closer to discovering an answer. Love, it seemed, was a human emotion that she could not wrap her mind around.

_And yet…_ Crusadermon crunched a brown paper bag containing her lunch for the day and scowled beneath her helm. _…There is this feeling…_

Crusadermon shook her head and turned away from the sight of Ayaka's school, leaping into the air. The train of thought was getting her nowhere, save perhaps as a distraction from the strange sensation she had briefly—_minutely_—detected coming from the direction of the park. Its briefness left her feeling disconcerted, but a quick check-in with her partner, one that left the girl's class heavily disrupted, told her that there had been no bio-emergence that would necessitate their investigation. She had stayed near, in the event that Hypnos would call her or one of the other Tamers to have the look into the matter, but as time passed it became apparent that nothing more was to come of it. Whatever it was that she sensed, it seemed to have been a fluke; a trick of the digital world. Or perhaps a hiccup of sorts.

_Whatever the case, it's nothing that requires me to look into it. But still…_

Feeling oddly agitated, Crusadermon flew towards the park and touched down onto the ground. All around her, birds chirped, and it appeared as pristine as ever. A number of birds lighted down on her, causing the Royal Knight to raise her eyebrows at them before shrugging nonchalantly. The birds leapt into the air, startled by the movement, but soon enough lit back down on her, singing their songs.

_What am I looking for…?_

"Crusadermon!" called out a familiar voice. Startled, Crusadermon jumped slightly and looked in the direction of the voice, finding a crimson-scaled reptile approaching her.

"Guilmon," she said, nodding. "Did you sense it as well?"

"Hah?" asked Guilmon, tilting his head to one side. "Sense what?"

"…Never mind." Crusadermon breathed a sigh of relief. As troubled as she felt about what she sensed, she felt that she could breathe easy on this front. Out of all the digimon she knew amongst the Tamers, Guilmon was one who was one of the most dependable when it came to detecting digimon, if not by the usual methods than by smell. Even Renamon, a warrior that Crusadermon found herself respecting greatly, had commented on the reptile's knack for finding things, and that was all the praise that she needed.

_…Well…perhaps not _all_ the praise,_ Crusadermon thought, remembering the way Guilmon had looked when she saw his Crimson Mode for the first time and felt the power radiating off him.

"What are you doing here, Crusadermon?" asked Guilmon, sniffing the air. "I thought I smelled food, but I didn't expect to see you."

"I'm just investigating a theory," she replied. "I thought I sensed something earlier, but it would appear that I was wrong. I must admit to being surprised that you smelled my meal and came so quickly. I did not know you were in the area."

Guilmon sniffed the air again, this time paying close attention to Crusadermon's bag.

"Nah, ah," he replied, shaking his head. "I didn't smell your lunch. I smelled something else." Guilmon looked at Crusadermon's bag. "Is that…Guilmon bread?"

"…Yes. Ayaka's mother purchased some recently from your partner's store. I helped myself to some before I left the house today."

"Good choice," Guilmon beamed happily. "You know, you've changed a lot since you first joined us."

_Indeed I have,_ thought Crusadermon, frowning a little. _Though I'm not certain that all of the changes have been for the good…_

Guilmon was again sniffing the air and he began wandering about, trying to locate what he had smelled. Crusadermon debated for a moment and began to follow him, somewhat curious about what he did over the course of his day. Before, she had never willingly done anything with the other tamed digimon, and had only branched out to the fighter types and, on occasion, Lumemon, but never went any further than that, except at Ayaka's insistence and during the holiday gatherings.

_If I'm going to work with them, I must make an effort to get to know them better. The more we know about each other, the better we'll be able to work together. Besides,_ Crusadermon tilted her head to one side as she watched Guilmon's nose work its magic, _this Royal Knight is…not a bad digimon to know. To be friends with._

Crusadermon shook her head as she followed Guilmon. Seconds ticked by, turning into minutes, until finally…

"Ah!" Guilmon's gold colored eyes lit up in excitement and he took off with a burst of speed that surprised Crusadermon. Moments later the Rookie was brushing aside bushes and produced a series of onions and meat, the latter's packaging slashed open by the branches that it had fallen into.

"You smelled all this?" asked Crusadermon.

"Ah-huh!" Guilmon's tail wagged slightly as he dug through the bush. "Ohhh…"

"What?" Crusadermon felt a pang of worry over the crestfallen sound that emerged from the Rookie's mouth.

Guilmon turned around and produced a broken carton of milk.

_ Oh…_

"Who could do this?" asked Guilmon, looking mournfully at the site of the ruined milk carton. "All this food…and the meat! Takato always says that meat is expensive to buy." Guilmon made a wining sound as he resumed digging through the brush, producing a ripped open plastic bag. Crusadermon frowned beneath her helm.

"Did someone get mugged here?" she asked. It didn't seem likely, as Japan had an unusually low crime rate, but the possibility was always there. "Guilmon. How old is the meat?"

"Not very old," replied Guilmon, sniffing the packaging. "It's still cold. This happened not too long ago."

"I…see." _Humans do not normally conduct robbery during daylight hours. Not without taking leave of their senses anyway._

"Guilmon. Can you smell any humans in the vicinity? Anyone who may need our help?"

"Nope." Guilmon shook his head. "No one's been through here except us."

_That's…not possible._ Crusadermon looked up at the sky, remembering the strange sensation she had detected earlier. The feeling that a digimon was trying to bio-emerge. _Could this have come from the digital world?_

Crusadermon shook her head.

_Well, it wouldn't be the first time we've seen an unusual exchange of materials between the human and digital worlds.

* * *

_

"My…relationship with my family," said Suzie in a flat voice.

"Yes," said Itsuya, succinctly. Suzie pulled Lopmon closer to her and bit her lower lip in thought.

"I'm the baby of the family," she said, grimacing a little. "It's that simple."

Itsuya leaned back in his chair and thumbed the back of his ear thoughtfully. "Explain."

Suzie shrugged. "What's there to explain? My parents and brothers and sister are always trying to keep me safe. That's what you're supposed to do for the youngest. Henry's always wants to protect me. I can see it whenever he hears about my problems with Atsuo, or whenever we're in a fight with a digimon. He wants to keep me out of it, even though I'm more than capable of handling myself. I can digivolve Lopmon without a digivice."

"I noted that when looking over your profile updates," said Itsuya with a nod. "Considering your relationship with your family, what's your interaction with Impmon's partners," Itsuya flipped through a couple sheets of paper from a folder he had sitting on his desk before continuing, "Ai and Mako."

Suzie raised an eyebrow. "Why?"

"I'm curious. In my experience, I've noticed that some children will project their emotions onto another…"

"What? You mean like 'beat them up' or something?"

"That is a distinct possibility, but that wasn't what I meant in this case. How do you interact with them? Do you…try to protect them? Keep them out of trouble? You both go to the same school, correct?"

"They're both seven years old. They're in the second grade. I'm in the fifth. We don't really get much time to talk or play around. Although there was one time last year where our schedules matched up and we hung out a lot. I got teased a lot for hanging out with a 'bunch of babies'."

"I see." Itsuya made a notation. "Given the times that you were able to hang out then, what did you do? How did you interact with them?"

Suzie shrugged. "Not a whole lot. We would run around and everything—play games like tag or house. That sort of thing. Little kid stuff. I tried to teach them the digimon game, but they had some trouble understanding it." Suzie massaged her partner's fur as she pressed her lips together. "When Atsuo started giving me trouble, I had to put some distance between myself and them so he wouldn't go after them too. We stayed friends, but…"

"But…?"

"I don't know. None of my friends get what I'm going through, and the others—Henry and the rest—don't even go to the same school as me. Sometimes I feel a little lonely because of that."

"Would you feel the same if Atsuo never gave you any problems?"

"I couldn't tell you."

"Did you have more friends—more people you could relate to, even without the distinction of being a Tamer—prior to meeting Atsuo?"

Suzie nodded. "I…used to hang out with Daisuke—Noriko's little brother—more. We were never in the same classroom, but I used to do more with him until Atsuo came along."

"Really? Could you tell me what happened?"

"I don't want to." Suzie shook her head and hugged Lopmon closer to her. "I've never brought it up with Noriko before, and I don't want her to find out."

"What you say here won't leave the confines of this room, Suzie," said Itsuya, leaning forward. "I promise."

Suzie opened her mouth to speak, paused, and then shook her head again. Swallowing, she whispered, "Sorry."

Itsuya eyed her for a moment before leaning back in his chair. "…I see."

* * *

Prometheus made his way down the street and came to a stop in front of a ramen stand. Taking a seat, he ordered a bowl of pork flavored ramen and waited. Within short order, a large, steaming bowl was placed in front of him, and he began eating.

_How interesting it is,_ he thought, his mouth salivating at the meal as it pervaded his taste buds. _A hundred worlds, a billion worlds…_ he eyed the figure who had served him his ramen as he went to work on the stove, getting ready to serve up another bowl to the next hungry customer. He glanced up into the mirror, and caught the sight of a man with spiky, dark-brown hair and a heavily tanned complexion. _…In the end, some people remain the same._

Prometheus slurped up some noodles.

_The incident in the park was taken care of. Nothing went perfectly, but that's to be expected. Nothing ever goes perfect. As these humans are so fond of saying: the best laid plans never survive first contact with reality. And _this_ is reality. All I can do is make sure that as much of it goes through as possible without a hitch. Now…_ Prometheus took up a napkin and wiped his mouth, his brow furrowing in thought. _Let's reflect. GranDracmon approaches, sending out his minions. No doubt they're on my trail now, but it will take them a while to do so, especially with the excess cargo they're carrying—namely Kurata, never mind each other. Well, Kurata is the only real chess piece that matters at the moment. The other two are, shall we say, bonuses. It's a risky gambit, involving him. This mission could be done without involving GranDracmon—_should_ be done without involving him—but what's done is done. All that I can do is hope that I haven't stretched too reach further than I should have, like Daedalus did._

Prometheus stretched and resumed eating, a thoughtful expression on his face.

_On this side of the plan, Suzie continues to play her part, albeit at a slow pace. But that's to be expected. With Norn moving, her part in the plan will soon be executed and I can see whether or not the risk is worth it. Lumemon being captured so early…_ Prometheus' chopsticks paused just inches away from his mouth, and he stared at them for a moment before bringing them up to his mouth, slipping the delicious ramen past his lips. _…that wasn't in the plan. With this, perhaps I should just go with my original plan and hope things go well._

Prometheus swallowed and leaned into one hand, his expression darkening.

_No… If I do that, I could risk destroying everything. I want to make sure that it _is_ possible. I want to gauge a success rate among the Tamers. Takato barely made the cut with Megidramon and Gallantmon. He barely made the cut again with ChaosGallantmon. He doesn't hold a very good track record as far as dark digivolutions go, and he was just _one_ Tamer. Rika and Henry were a little bit better. And Ryo…_ Prometheus narrowed his eyes. _…the less said about him and his 'partner', the better. And Beelzemon… Well, his partners were far too young, and he was lost to begin with. Lost and without dignity. His fall was easy to see, and he barely turned back in the end._

Prometheus stirred his chopsticks in his bowl.

_Do I even need the Tamers for this? Beelzemon went over to the side of the Tamers before he and his partners became 'official'. Maybe…_ Prometheus shook his head mentally. _No. It was too late for him then, and he had to be guilt tripped back onto the side of angels. If Suzie establishes that Tamers can pull back—do have a large enough success rate—than I can continue onwards and feel confident that the two worlds won't be destroyed. I'll know that the digignomes don't just randomly select humans. They select them for a reason, which means that their next upcoming target, will be the one who will bring about the greatest change—and with the greatest amount of risk. He might do it. He might make it. Even while in the belly of a raging beast, but I want to make sure. I need to be ready._

Prometheus checked his watch.

_Taking an awful risk with that kid, Atsuo. And I'm running out of time._

With that, Prometheus chugged down the remainder of his soup, gave a satisfied belch and leaned back, gazing lazily at the Hypnos towers that lay off in the distance. As he watched, the towers were wrapped in a subtle, dark aura for a brief second before returning to normal. Prometheus blinked as alarm bells went off in his head.

_That's… Oh shit. That's _definitely_ not a good sign…

* * *

_

Davis Motimiya turned back towards the counter, steam rising from a bowl in his hands.

"All right, buds. Who's up for more ra—eh?" Davis blinked and looked around. "Where'd the pork guy go? He didn't…eh?" Davis blinked and looked at the edge of the bowl. Snuggly hidden just beneath its edge was a wad of yen. Setting the bowl down, he picked it up and thumbed through it, carefully counting out the bills, his eyes widening with each passing second. As soon as he finished, he let out a loud whistle.

"Whoa… Ten…Ten thousand _yen?_ Wha…?" Leaning over the counter, Davis looked frantically around and quickly spotted his customer, busily making his way down the streets at a rapid pace.

"Hey! Dude! You forgot to collect your change!"

_…Although I don't think I can break 10 thousand yen…_

Prometheus waved a hand over his shoulder and quickened his pace.

"Call it a tip!" he called back before vanishing out of sight, leaving Davis dumbfounded.

* * *

A/N: Busy week this week, so I apologize for the lack of updates.

The plot advances, as ever, only this time we get more of a peek inside of Prometheus' head and what he's striving for. For the record, 10 thousand yen is roughly equal to one hundred and fourteen some odd U.S. dollars (75 pounds for those British readers, and 89 Euros for the overall European readers). Prometheus was in quite the hurry, and doesn't really care about change anyway. Plus, he really liked the ramen.

And no, the Davis Motimiya represented in this chapter isn't the one from Adventure, but is more like the Tamers' world version of the digidestined. In this case, he's older and never got the chance to deal with the digital world like his Adventure counterpart did. I just couldn't resist the cameo. :D

And Lumemon's been captured. Bad luck for him, and for Atsuo. Where things develop from here, we'll see as we go. 'Till next chapter. :P

-Crazyeight

* * *

9


	33. Cures and Ailments

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.

Revival

Chapter: 33/ Cures and Ailments

Yamaki closed the door to the Hypnos gymnasium behind him, his brow furrowed deeply in thought. Next to him, Riley watched him, her eyes questioning. They had just gotten finished questioning Urocyomon about his dealings in the so-called _Dark Area_ of the digital world and about any information he had about it.

"Well…" she began in an attempt to break the silence, "that was educational."

"Alternate dimensions," mused Yamaki. "And the digital world is apparently connected to all of them."

"What are the chances that their problems will become a part of ours? I mean, I hate to say it, but the digital world seems to be getting smaller every day with the more we explore it. Urocyomon has helped us tremendously in how to traverse it. How long will it be before we bump into someone else?"

"Today. Tomorrow. Maybe never. For now, I think we should focus on what can control now."

"Still…we should at least have some information to go on…"

"I never said that we shouldn't, Riley." Yamaki flicked his lighter open and closed. "What's the report on Kenta's DVD materials on the 'Dark Ocean'?"

"There's not much to say. I've had people watch the episodes during their down time and take notes, but it hardly gives us anything to go on except that the place is all black and white. With perhaps an exception or two, it appears to function identically to the digital world."

"And those exceptions are…?"

Riley flipped through a series of papers she was carrying.

"There was an episode that dealt with strange, 'shadowy' beings much like what Crusadermon reported following the return of Ryo's team from the digital world. She has also provided some information on the Dark Area, but…" Riley pressed her lips together into one thin line. "…it seems that she doesn't have any more information than we do except that it's supposed to be a prison of sorts. It's very hard to get to for starters, but the show seems to contradict that. In addition, Crusadermon claims that there are different types of 'Dark Areas', all made to act as a prison, but the nature of the one she and the others saw is…_unique_. That's how she described it."

"I see." Metal clinked as Yamaki's lighter flicked open and closed. "Did she say why?"

"Only that it has expanded and that, for some reason, it is connected to multiple worlds. She doesn't know any more than that I'm afraid. She believes information has been deliberately withheld, or perhaps even repressed due to her no longer being in Yggdrasil's service."  
Yamaki reached up and pushed his sunglasses up onto his face. "Dark Ocean…connection to multiple worlds…" Yamaki scowled. "I feel like a sailor looking at an uncharted area on a map that's labeled 'here there be monsters'."

Riley raised an eyebrow. "Sir?"

"Never mind. What about the company that produces the digimon franchise? Have they responded to our email requests for all available data and materials they have?"

"Unfortunately, no." Riley scowled and flipped through some more papers. "In fact, the man responsible for pitching the idea of digimon seems to be _on vacation_ with _no way to contact him._ Not much is known about him either, though I have Amaya Abe and her people conducting research in the archives." Riley gave Yamaki an apologetic look. "This is going to take some time."

"Keep me posted," said Yamaki, flicking his lighter shut with a sharp snap. "I…"

Yamaki was abruptly interrupted by the ringing of his cell phone. Picking it up, he frowned at the number before flipping it open.

"Yamaki."

_"Hello Yamaki," _said a smooth, female voice that Yamaki recognized. _"As straight to the point as ever, I see."_

"Ms. Yoshikawa," he said in greeting. Though his tone was calm and without hesitation, he had to admit to feeling a bit concerned about the call. Riley's eyes widened slightly in surprise, her thoughts mirroring Yamaki's exactly. What was one of their sponsors doing calling him directly?

_It's been a few days since we last talked,_ Yamaki frowned._ This isn't normal procedure…_

"Is there something I can do for you?" he asked.

_"Yes,"_ Juria Yoshikawa said on her end of the phone. _"I'm going to be in the area of Shinjuku shortly and I was hoping you could meet me for lunch. I would like to talk to you about the future of Hypnos."_

"Very well," said Yamaki, nodding.

_"I'll send you the location as soon as I'm settled. Until then…"_

The sound of a click ended the conversation, and Yamaki clicked his phone closed, a look of concern on his face.

"Well, that was different," said Riley, voicing his thoughts perfectly. "What did she want?"

"We're going to be going over the future of Hypnos, it seems," said Yamaki. Riley raised an eyebrow at this.

"She's not thinking about backing out of the program, is she?"

Yamaki shook his head. "Not likely. After the incident with Noriko three years ago, she has been firmly backing most of our endeavors into researching the digital world and providing us with funds as needed. But…I believe I know what she's talking about."

"I…see." Riley gave Yamaki a look that asked him to fill her in on what that was. Sensing her unspoken request, Yamaki shook his head.

"I'm afraid that this is something I can't discuss with you just yet."

"Can you give me an idea as to when?" Riley paused before respectfully adding, "sir."

A smile tugged at the lips of the blonde haired man and he shook his head.

"It all depends on what the higher ups say, Riley."

"Since when have you played ball for them?" Riley knew that wasn't how she was supposed to speak while on the job, but she couldn't help herself. Yamaki's secretive attitude towards her the past few days had begun to wear on her patience.

Yamaki's barely visible smile disappeared altogether, and the man turned away.

"Let me know when you have more information," he said as he began to walk towards the nearest elevator. Riley shook her head and scowled at his back.

_Men…

* * *

_

Miki stirred her chopsticks into her meal absentmindedly, staring quizzically at Takato as he ate his lunch. All around them, the room was filled with conversation and laughter, not least of which came from the group that she and the brown haired boy were a part of. Every now and then she would receive a worried look from Kazu, Kenta, or Ayaka before they would glance over at Takato and then at each other with a shrug.

Takato, for his part, remained completely oblivious to the attention that was paid to him and with a laugh began to down his chocolate milk. Miki frowned at him.

_There's…something different about him today. But I don't know what it is. I feel like I should know, but…_

"Hey, Chumley," broke in Kazu, swallowing some bread. "I've been meaning to ask you. How's your bruise holding up from when you got smacked by that Triceramon? I remember that you were knocked down for the count and couldn't go on the trip with Ryo and the rest because of it."

"Oh, that." Takato laughed a bit in embarrassment. "Well…believe it or not, I'm all better now. It…healed up surprisingly fast!"

Ayaka turned towards Kenta and swung an arm over Kenta's shoulder. "That's my Kenta for you. A little MarineAngemon is the best medicine there is, right?"

"Uh…Ayaka?" Kenta squirmed a little under her grip. "We didn't do anything then. Remember? We were trying to find Suzie's digivice and Riley grounded Takato for being too rash." Kenta frowned. "We should have been working to heal you guys up from that fight anyways. We really could have used your help out there in the digital world."

Kazu looked at Kenta with a shocked expression on his face. "Are you kidding me, Chumley? You guys had Ryo with you! You would have taken the Dark Masters out like clockwork!"

"Well…" Kenta adjusted his glasses and sighed. "…Yeah. But things got a little hairy, even for Ryo. He had to call in Milleniummon to save our butts and…" Kenta paused and glanced away, seeing the expressions on his friends' faces from that.

"Was it really that bad?" asked Takato. Ayaka gave him a pained expression before massaging Kenta's shoulder with her hand.

"Well…it wasn't a pleasant experience, let me tell you that. But I think we're drifting a little off topic. So what was that you were saying about being healed up 'surprisingly fast'? Riley put you on the bench for just jumping into the fight. That was weird of her, not wanting Kenta to heal you up so you could learn a lesson…but…how did you do it? You're not joking around with us, are you?"

"Nope." Takato shook his head. "I only noticed the change yesterday morning. The bruise was almost completely gone and I had no problems breathing like I did after I got it." Takato tapped one finger on his chin thoughtfully. "I wonder if all those times I've biomerged with Guilmon has something to do with it."

"Maybe you should get yourself checked out," said Miki, slurping up some noodles. She scowled at the boy. Just _what_ was it that looked so different? He was the same as he always was…

She glanced over at Ayaka and Miki, a sense of familiarity coursing through her mind. The way Takato was looking in her eyes now, she had seen it before, and on those two.

_Could it be…?_

"Why?" asked Kazu, leaning back in his chair. "If he heals fast, I don't see what the big deal is. It might mean that we'll end up doing the same too later. It can take some of the pressure off of Kenta here."

"Yeah, but aren't we talking about bizarre changes to the human body?" snapped Ayaka. "I've got to agree with Miki on this one. I think we should let Hypnos know so that Takato can get checked out. The last thing we need is for him to be growing a giant tentacle arm or something…or worse. Getting Guilmon's appetite."

"Don't you think that you're blowing this out of proportion?" asked Takato, trying to placate his friends' worries. Ayaka sniffed.

"Why? Does Rika _like_ you growing tentacles or something?"

Takato's face bloomed bright red at that while Kazu struggled to keep from laughing. Kenta frowned at his girlfriend.

"Ayaka…all he did was heal a little bit faster. Well…that's something to worry about, but I don't think he'll be evolving into some kind of mutant…"

Ayaka scowled. "So sue me for wanting him to actually worry about himself for once. I mean, it's not natural, and he goes and lets it go for _two days_ without checking in with anyone about it! What's Rika got to say? I'm betting she at least knows since," Ayaka grinned and leaned forward on her desk, cupping her chin in one hand, "you two are _so_ close."

Takato felt his blush deepen a little and he stirred his straw in his milk carton.

"We…uh…haven't had much of a chance to talk about it since I showed her."

Miki, who had been sucking up another noodle from her soup, paused and raised an eyebrow at the boy.

"'showed her?'" she repeated. That caused a round of blinks from the other Tamers. Ayaka chuckled.

"Wow, Takato. It only took you two three years…"

"We didn't…I mean…well, we are now…but…didn't…did…ahhh…"

"I _knew_ something looked different about you," said Miki, finally putting the pieces of the puzzle together. "You had this weird glow about you ever since you came in. _Just_ like Henry. Kind of like how Ayaka and Kenta were after the Christmas party when she trapped him under the mistletoe, remember? They finally got around to cementing their relationship then and they were all…_weird_ for a while."

"We did not look _weird,_ Miki," grumbled Ayaka. Miki slurped up the remainder of the noodle in her mouth and pointed her chopsticks at the coppery haired girl.

"Yes you did. You two were looking like two happy lambs. You giggled, you snuck about to kiss…and _don't_ tell me that your eyes weren't sparkling whenever you two kissed or Kenta got you something nice." Miki straightened up and put her hands on her hips in a haughty fashion. "I know all, and I _see_ all."

"Right," said Kazu dispassionately. "So what makes you so sure that Henry is the same way then? He and Noriko always act weird around each other…"

"The same way that I know you sometimes think of yourself as the fifth wheel, Kazu," snapped Miki, glaring at the boy. "Because I'm _Lilithmon!"_

Kazu scowled, and for once didn't say anything in response to that. Seeing the expression on his face, Ayaka looked over at her friend disapprovingly.

"That wasn't called for, Miki."

The dark haired girl settled back down in her seat, fidgeting apologetically. "Sorry. It's just…I don't know. Ever since Beanie and I became Lilithmon for the first time, I've been a little more…aware of things about other people than before."

"A little bit meaner at times, too," said Ayaka pointedly. "You know, no one ever thinks much about this biomerge stuff, and from what I've experienced from it, it's…it feels pretty good. But I can't help but wonder how that affects us. Takato's healing faster than normal, and Miki…"

"That's an awfully big leap of judgment, isn't it?" asked Takato. Ayaka sighed.

"Yeah…I guess so. Sorry, Miki. But you have to admit, you've got your off days, and it's not always when you're having your period."

"I know. I'm sorry." Miki looked over at Kazu and offered him an apologetic smile. "And sorry to you especially. Can I make it up to you?"

Kazu shrugged and grinned at the girl. "Maybe if you march around the school topless while singing…"

_"Kazu!"_

_ "Anyway!"_ Miki interrupted Ayaka with a flaming face. "I'm a little bit curious about what you said there, Takato. You said, "We are now." So, how about giving us the details?"

"Eh?"

Reaching over, Kazu smacked Takato lightly on the back of his head.

"You finally getting together with Rika, Chumley," the boy said, frustrated at his friend. "How'd it happen? I'll bet you were being your usual stupid self and panicked like usual."

"C'mon Kazu," said Kenta, adjusting his glasses again. "Takato isn't always like that…"

"With his luck?" Kazu snorted. "I'll bet he fell on her or something. I'd call it irony, seeing as how he reads all those bad comedy romance mangas…"

"Hey!"

Returning her attention to her lunch, Miki sighed and shook her head.

_This is going to be informative, I can tell that already…

* * *

_

_That Gogglehead,_ smirked Rika, shaking her head as she took notes in class. _He's only there for one day and already he blows our cover. _Rika's smirk softened, but remained amused. _Well, it's probably better this way anyway. We don't have to worry about our friends catching us on a date or anything…_

Rika's pen paused in its jotting down of notes ever so briefly, and by sheer coincidence the teacher's droning likewise paused as he glanced down at the book he was working from, searching for his place.

_Dating,_ she thought, glancing up at the board and resuming her work at the same moment that the teacher did. It felt odd to her just thinking the word, and she knew that it would seem even stranger to say it out loud._ That's right. I'm a teenager now. That's what we do, isn't it._ Rika frowned. She had never wanted, nor thought of herself as a typical girl by any stretch of the imagination. She never felt the pressure of going out on dates like most girls her age, though she did once unwittingly with one boy when she thought about expanding her network of friends beyond the traditional Tamer group. She couldn't help but feel bad for the boy then when she had to admit to him that her heart already belonged to someone else. Yet, despite this fact, it hadn't discouraged any of the other boys that attended her private school from trying to go out with her.

_Who would have thought that I'd curse my parents genes for something like that?_ Rika thought, continuing to jot down notes.

As she continued to absently listen to Takato's constant, inept jabbering and attempts to cover up their relationship, she paused to wonder, just _what_ were they supposed to do now that they were a couple? Did they continue s they did now? As they always had? Or did they just…what? What changed between them now that they were 'officially' seeing each other as more than just friends with close connection to each other?

_This sounds like something that should be really easy, but is about as complicated sounding as when I first began to wonder if Renamon really had feelings. Ugh. I wonder if I should get some advice or something…_

Rika glanced up at the clock, wishing that it would move faster so that she could be out of the building and with her friends. She wanted nothing more than to…

Rika felt the muscles in her back stiffen as a chill ran down them, and instinctively she cast a worried look out the window towards the direction of Hypnos.

_What…was that?_ she thought, her breath catching sharply in her chest. Her heart had picked up its pace, not quite beating like a hammer, but just elevated enough to make her feel a small sense of…what? Fear? Rika frowned. She did not like that word, _despised _it even, even though there had been one or two occasions where she admitted it freely. The sense of helplessness that went with it was not an enjoyable experience.

_I must be having an off day,_ she thought. Despite this, one hand crept over towards her digivice, neatly clipped to her uniform and the only thing that the school would allow her to have that wasn't related to it. She could not shake the strange feeling in her mind. After a moment she took a deep breath and got to her feet.

_The teacher is really not going to like this…_

"Excuse me sir," she began, getting ready to throw herself into the storm.

* * *

Urocyomon flipped onto the balancing beam, taking a slow, deep breath as he righted himself. Although he hadn't been in the suspension fluid in the healing tanks for very long, he felt as though he had been in there for an eternity, and as such wanted to check to see if his physical abilities had been at all affected by his injuries. He didn't expect anything out of the ordinary, but it didn't hurt to check just to be on the safe side.

Turning around, he executed a series of back flips, his paws easily grabbing the beam and spinning him through the air until he reached the very end. Not a single mishap occurred along the way, and nodding to himself, he hopped off the balancing beam and glanced around. Here and there a few humans busied themselves on the exercise machines. Most watched him with a curious eye, but none did anything to interrupt him.

_That's what I like about this world,_ thought Urocyomon, a small, invisible smile playing upon his muzzle. _Back home, every Renamon was always bothering me…_teasing_ me. Here, I don't get that. I get odd looks from time to time, but for the most part, I'm left alone. Not at all like the temple…_

Urocyomon paused in his thinking, briefly wondering how things were going amongst the Seer Council, and that in turn led him to wonder how Kuzuhamon was doing with Alice. From the latter he heard from time to time, and the two seemed to be getting along just fine with Kuzuhamon performing as Alice's personal maid, bodyguard, and close confident.

_Last I heard she was trying to get a job of some sorts so that she could contribute to the earnings of Alice's family and help with her eventual 'college education'…whatever that means. _Urocyomon sighed. _I'm surprised that the Seer Council hasn't come searching for us. Granted, the digital world was something of a mess when we left it, and it's become…odd while I've been exploring it, but you would think that they would come looking for us. Kuzuhamon used to be the Gatekeeper at the temple, and me…I'm the male line of the Renamon species. Supposedly important, though I've yet to see any proof of it._ Urocyomon frowned and glanced down t himself._ Those shadow beings from the Dark Area seemed to think I was anyway. I don't know. What am I good for besides traveling around the digital world? I know magic, but compared to a Sakuyamon, Kuzuhamon, Doumon, and a Taomon I'm a complete amateur. Heck, even the Kyubimon knows more than I do._

_ Oh well. I'm home now…_ Urocyomon paused again at that thought. _Home. Since when did I start thinking of Hypnos and the real world as 'home'? _Reaching up he scratched behind his ears and shook his head._ I need something to eat. I wonder if Kuroda is on break yet. I'd like to have a talk with him before figuring out what I'm going to do next._

Urocyomon sauntered off towards the exit, passing by a mirror as he did so. One ear twitched reflexively, and he glanced over his shoulder. He furrowed his brow in confusion.

_Weird. For a second there I could have sworn that… Nah. Must've been my imagination._

Urocyomon left the gym, not noticing the shadowy figure that appeared within the mirror before it disappeared from view.

* * *

Prometheus stood outside of Hypnos, glaring up at the building, his hands crammed into his pockets. His eyes rose across its surface, taking it in before narrowing dangerously.

_Yup,_ he thought._ That aura is there again. And that means that _they're_ here as well._ Prometheus wiped his nose and scowled. _Damn… I hadn't anticipated this to happen this quickly. What could possibly have made them move this soo—_

Prometheus' head shot up towards the building as realization settled heavily in his mind.

_Oh, shit. Urocyomon! God damn it! I should have guessed this from the very start! Crap! I can't bring in Maelstrom for this one. So that means…_

"…Looks like I'm going to have to handle this myself," Prometheus said with a grimace. "Damn. This is going to turn some heads."

Pulling out one hand, he gestured towards the Hypnos building, and all at once a massive bank of fog materialized out of thin air, swallowing it whole. Nodding to himself, Prometheus took a step forward and disappeared into the mists, cracking his neck as he went.

_Going to have to make this quick…

* * *

_

A/N: So I set about with this chapter with a little bit less than what was in here, and then, after reading through some of the previous chapters to make sure that nothing was left out, I remembered that Takato's extra fast healing hadn't been commented on for quite a while, and on top of that hadn't been asked about by Hypnos. This didn't sit well with me as it didn't seem likely that Hypnos would likely let something like that slip by no matter how advantageous it would be for Takato, so it needed to be brought back up. That and Yamaki's mysterious subplot as well, as it's been a while since it was last touched on. As an added bonus, I was able to put in some more screen time for Miki and touch on some things that will be important for the story as a whole.

The mystery at Hypnos deepens, and not in a good way. What happens next we'll see in the next chapter. 'Till then. :P

-Crazyeight

* * *

7


	34. Darkness: Part 1

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.

Revival

Chapter: 34/ Darkness: Part 1

With a quick glance around, Rika slipped out of the front door of her school, closing it shut behind her. No sooner did she do so, Renamon materialized out of thin air.

"A little early to be leaving school, aren't we?" the vulpine digimon asked with a curious tone. Rika _hmmphed_ and shrugged her bag onto her shoulder.

"I'm not doing this for selfish reasons." Rika furrowed her brow. "I just…something feels…_weird._ Have you sensed anything, Renamon?"

"Admittedly, yes," nodded Renamon. "I was considering investigating whatever it was, but I can't seem to tell for certain where it's coming from. Only a general sense."

"Glad I'm not the only one then." Rika breathed a sigh of relief. "For a minute there I thought I was starting to go insane."

A small smile graced Renamon's features. "Oh? I didn't know that you had such worries, Rika."

The violet-eyed girl shot a glare at her partner. "Are you making fun of me?"

"Not at all," Renamon replied, though the slight swish in her tail told a different story. "But I believe that Terriermon would have been the first to agree with you, especially after you and Takato so recently solidified your relationship."

"He should really take his own advice and momentai," grumbled Rika, a slight blush blooming on her face. She pulled out her D-Arc from her bag and drew a digivolution card. "You ready?"

_"…Rika?"_ came the voice of Takato from the link that she shared with him. _"What's going on? Sorry, I didn't mean to peek or anything, but you feel kind of worried…"_

A small smile graced Rika's face and she shook her head.

_"Sorry. Renamon and I sensed something so we're going to check it out. I'll let you know if it's anything major."_

_ "Um…okay."_ There followed a brief silence during which Rika could have sworn that she felt Takato smile. _"Be careful, okay?"_

_ "You worry too much, Gogglehead. But sure. You'll be the first I'll call if I run into something I can't handle…as if that'll ever happen."_

_ "Same old Rika. Catch you later."_

With that, Rika felt Takato's presence recede in her mind, returning her to her privacy. She glanced over at Renamon, who was raising an eyebrow at her.

"You're not asking for the others' help?" she asked, having picked up the conversation from the link that the two of them shared.

"We'll check out the situation, if there even is one, and then we'll figure out what happens next. You ready?"

Renamon nodded. "Always."

Rika quickly slashed her digivolution card through her D-Arc and within a flash of light Renamon's form was replaced by that of Kyubimon. The nine-tailed fox laid down on the ground, allowing Rika to climb onto her accustomed place on the vulpine's back. Raising her digivice Rika activated the scanning function and frowned.

"All right. I guess we're not getting any help from this thing. We're going to have to do this the hard way then. Search the city until we've figured out whether or not there's anything out there."

"Fortunately we can sense that there's something out there," nodded Kyubimon. "I feel that it will grow stronger as we get closer."

Rika leaned forward and grabbed hold of her partner's red and white striped ribbon. "Then let's get moving."

With that, Kyubimon leapt into the air, vanishing from sight.

* * *

Kuroda scowled at the computer, his fingers rapidly typing in commands.

"Oookay…_this_ is weird. Tally…"

"Yeah, I'm getting it," Tally replied, her brow furrowing beneath her visor. "I'm picking up an unusual buildup of energy within the vicinity. It's like it's right on our doorstep, but at the same time…" Tally lifted her visor. "I don't get it. It's like we have a dimensional warp right on top of us."

Kuroda placed his hand on his chin in thought. "Yeah. I don't get it either. You and Riley have put together all those firewalls around Hypnos. It would take something along the lines of D-Reaper's level of power to breach them, and that's no easy feat. But there's one thing that's bugging me. If these sensors are right, and they usually are, why haven't we seen some evidence that there's something going on?"

"Maybe because we don't have any windows in here?"

Kuroda looked up at Tally, completely thunderstruck. The thought hadn't occurred to him.

"Um…Tally? I don't suppose…?"

"Already activating external building cameras," she said to him, her fingers already flying across her keyboard. Within moments, one of the many screens activated, revealing a thick mist surrounding. The corner's of Kuroda's mouth twitched noticeably.

"This is bad…"

As if to drive the point home, all light within the control room shut off, plunging Tally and Kuroda trapped within darkness.

* * *

* * *

**"Fox Fire."**

A small blue flame materialized in Urocyomon's paw and he let it float in front of him. Repeating his words, he added several more flames around him, illuminating the hallway. He glanced around him, frowning. Darkness surrounded him on all sides, and the light from his small _Fox Fires_ seemed small and weak, as though they could be swallowed at any moment by the shadows.

_Power's out,_ thought Urocyomon, beginning to plod forward, crouching down cautiously as he did so._ Though I have to admit, this is a little bit strange. There should still be some residual light around here. I'm not too far away from the windows and last I checked it was daytime outside so…what…?_

Urocyomon tensed as he saw something flicker upon the wall of an upcoming turn. Urocyomon quickly doused his lights reflexively and balled his hands into tight fists, ready to fight or run at a moment's notice. He almost chided himself for giving in to instincts forged in him from his training in the digital world. The human world, so far as he knew, did not hold much in the way of threats even for one such as him without causing a severe amount of damage in the process. As that wasn't the case, he should be safe…right?

_"Not all dangers come from Megas, Urocyomon,"_ the silver furred Rookie remembered his teacher saying once. Despite this knowledge, Urocyomon resummoned his _Fox Fires_ and called out.

"Hello? Who's there?"

Something flickered on the wall again, and this time Urocyomon could see that it was a warm, orange glow, like a flame. A moment later Yamaki turned the corner, his lighter in his hand, lit. Urocyomon relaxed his stance.

"Oh. It's just you."

Yamaki raised an eyebrow at that, but chose not to comment on the digimon's words.

"Is there anyone else with you?" the blonde haired head of Hypnos asked. Urocyomon shook his head.

"No." Urocyomon shook his head. "But there were some people still in the gym when I left. They may still be there."

Yamaki nodded. "All right. Get them together and stay with them."

"Why?" Urocyomon raised an eyebrow. "The power's only off. I don't think that there's anything to worry about."

Even as he said those words, a part of him remembered the odd feeling from earlier.

"Hypnos was designed to have multiple backup generators in the event that such an event occurred. The fact that not a single one of them has activated since the power went out indicates that something is going on. In addition," Yamaki pulled out his cell phone and showed it to the Rookie, "this powered down and won't activate. I suspect the same has occurred for all electronics inside Hypnos."

"What about your fire there?" asked Urocyomon. "Isn't that…um…_electronic?"_

Yamaki raised an eyebrow before looking at his lighter. "No. This uses fuel that is ignited by striking metal against flint. Compared to the systems in this building, there is nothing 'technological' about it."

"I…see." Urocyomon's ears flipped slightly, marking his embarrassment. After a moment, the light in Yamaki's lighter began to fail, causing the man to frown.

"What's going on?" Urocyomon asked.

"I'm running out of fuel," the head of Hypnos replied.

"In that case…" Urocyomon closed his paws and reopened them, revealing a pair of blue balls of fire that soon lifted into the air and floated in front of Yamaki. "Sir. I've enchanted these two Fox flames to follow you, but I believe I would be more useful to you than sitting things out inside a gymnasium. Especially since…" Urocyomon paused before continuing. "…I believe that this may be a result of a digimon attempting to bio-emerge. I…felt something odd earlier after you concluded your discussion with me, but I haven't seen anything."

Yamaki ran this through his head before nodding. The Rookie's logic was sound, given that exceptionally powerful digimon had a way of interfering with electrical equipment. However, Hypnos was shielded against such things, and it would take a lot to bring the building down in this manner, especially since the defenses had been drastically improved in the years since the Deva and D-Reaper invasions. "I'll need to get to the main control room and see if I can assess the situation there. Most of the systems there are provided with extra shielding and a backup system that's independent of the main network. It won't be much, but it should be able to give us an idea as to what's happening."

"All right," nodded Urocyomon. "You do all that stuff and…" Urocyomon glanced over his shoulder, feeling a cold chill run down the length of his back. "…I'll provide the light."

* * *

Air warped in front of the main entrance and Prometheus shimmered into view. His feet touched down and he took in the main lobby. Darkness greeted him from all corners. Muttering a curse under his breath, he raised one hand and a flashlight materialized. A quick click and light bombarded the room, eliciting a loud cry from off to the side. Swiveling his flashlight around, he quickly found a young woman cowering behind the lobby's main desk, a shocked look on her face.

"Sorry about that," apologized Prometheus, holding up his free hand in a placating gesture. "I didn't mean to startle you."

"How did you get in?" the woman demanded angrily, her hand fumbling around on her desk for something. "I did _not_ see those doors come open!"

Prometheus offered the woman a small, comforting smile. "Well…it _is_ rather dark in here…"

"Don't patronize me," the woman snapped. "Those doors have windows and are letting in _more_ than enough light to see them b—_shit!"_

Prometheus chuckled a little as the woman accidently knocked something to the floor, and he shone a light over his shoulder.

_She's right. There's not much to see by with all that fog out there, but there's _just_ enough for all intents and purposes. My mistake._

"Well," began Prometheus, returning the light on the woman and rubbing the back of his head. "To be honest, even my mother had a hard time noticing me whenever I walked into a place. I'm what you could say a very unnoticeable person. Um…is there something going on here? Should I come back later or something?"

"We're just experiencing a power outage," said the woman, quickly grabbing whatever she had knocked over and pushing it back onto her desk, all the while glaring at him suspiciously. "What are you here for?"

"Oh. Um…I guess you could say that I'm a reporter. I was meaning to look in on the place since I heard that this is where the famous Hypnos organization is located. I understand that the Tamers come here a lot and I wanted to interview them…"

"We don't allow reporters in here," said the woman, settling herself down in her chair and crossing her arms beneath her breasts in a defiant gesture.

"Hmmm…that's problematic. I thought that there was a freedom of the press and 'open door policy' that was supposed to be going on…"

_"That's…"_ the woman took a deep breath, trying to calm herself. "That's being _discussed_, but nothing's been affirmed. Whatever you heard about _that_ you heard wrong."

Prometheus glanced around, starting to get a little anxious. He hadn't meant to be caught, and as much as he didn't like to do anything that might give him away too quickly, he couldn't afford to remain here too long."

"Hey," began the woman after a brief pause. "Where's your press badge? I don't see one on you."

"Oh. Sorry my dear _Taeko Endo,"_ he smiled. "I'm afraid I must have left it back at the office."

"How did you know my…?"

Taeko never got a chance to finish her sentence before Prometheus leaned over the desk and gently patted her cheek before she could push away. Taeko's eyes rolled up into her head and she slumped forward onto her desk. Prometheus waited until a light snore emerged from her mouth before smiling and patting her head.

"Sorry about that. But you were just getting in the way, and I can't afford to be delayed right now." Leaning backwards he gave her a contemplative look moving towards the nearest stairwell. Stopping to look back at the sleeping Taeko he smiled.

"Pleasant dreams," he said before vanishing.

* * *

Prometheus rematerialized in the middle of a hallway and swept his flashlight around, frowning. The place was strangely deserted, not quite what he expected for a government agency as well staffed as Hypnos.

_Then again, with all the power out, everyone's probably trying to keep their heads down until it comes back on. No sense in tripping around and getting into trouble._

The thought did nothing to reassure him, and a bad feeling began to weigh heavily upon his mind.

_Could _they_ be responsible for all this silence? All this desertion?_

Prometheus continued forward cautiously, telling himself that he was letting his imagination run away from him.

_I've been pretending to be a human for too long…_

"…uld you _please_ listen to me? I'm telling you that we should just…"

Prometheus' head whipped around as he heard the voice coming from a door to his right. He whirled about as it clicked open and the face of one Suzie Wong with Lopmon sitting on top of her head appeared in the beam of his flashlight.

"I _can't_ just sit here and wait. Something's wrong and I…" Suzie glanced in Prometheus' direction and blinked. "Hey, mister. Can you tell me what's going o—?"

That was as far as Suzie got before Prometheus reached out and touched her forehead. The girl's body stiffened and her eyes rolled up before she collapsed forward.

"Suzie!" exclaimed Lopmon as Prometheus caught the girl and gently laid her down. The rabbit digimon leapt off Suzie's head and placed her paws on her, shaking her in an attempt to rouse her. "Suzie! Wake up! Are you all right? Suzie!" The digimon turned towards Prometheus, a horrified look on her face. "What did you—?" Lopmon was cut off as Prometheus grabbed her and a pulse of energy met her tiny body.

"Sleep," said Prometheus as Lopmon gave a sharp jerk and a tiny squeak before becoming still. Setting the digimon down on the ground and placing Suzie's arm around her, Prometheus stood up and looked at the man that had followed her from out of the room. Itsuya Takahashi.

"For once," Itsuya said, adjusting his glasses, "you decided to go straight for the jugular instead of playing your games."

"Circumstances called for it," said Prometheus, tilting his head to one side while looking at the two sleeping partners. Suzie shifted slightly on the ground and curled her arm around Lopmon, pulling her closer while muttering something under her breath. "I've isolated this building from the outside world."

Itsuya raised his eyebrows at that. "Why?"

"Foothold situation it seems. It would appear that we have some unwanted _swimmers_ in our waters."

Itsuya nodded in understanding. "Urocyomon."

"Yes, him."

"Did you predict this?"

"I predicted that there would be an invasion thanks to what Kuroda and Tally did to safeguard Ryo's team in the digital world," admitted Prometheus, "but I didn't expect it to happen _this_ quickly. Urocyomon was _supposed_ to still be traveling in the digital world, not be brought back home." Prometheus frowned. "Well, it's not as though this can't be rectified. I'll need to go to the Juggernaut complex and work things from there. But this'll put a crimp on things. Plans may need to be altered." Prometheus looked down at Suzie. "She'll be affected by this. The darkness is right here, in these halls, and in the air. Plenty of food for Bakumon, and very ripe. But I fear what her nightmares will bring. She's…unusually powerful for her age."

Prometheus sniffed and looked up at Itsuya, smiling. "Well, that's what this is all for though, right? More the challenge she'll need to overcome, and if she does, I'll have more faith in humanity. Stay with her _Itsuya._ Keep those _Scubamon_ from getting near her. I would hate to see those things try _another_ attempt at procreating like they did with the Keeper of Light."

Itsuya nodded. "Very well. If that is your order…"

"It _is_ my order, Itsuya. Draw a line and don't let any of those things cross it." With that, Prometheus tapped the floor with his foot and rose into the air, disappearing from view. Itsuya stood there for a moment before turning about and pulling out a small penlight from his shirt pocket and clicking it on.

"Well?" he asked the shadows, pushing up his glasses. "Are you going to just stand there? Or are you going to come out and face me?"

The sound of something slithering could be heard on the air, and a dark, spindly shaped leg stepped into the light. Itsuya panned the light up to find a gangly, ghostly shape with cold, gold colored eyes. The creature hissed at the touch of the light, but did not shrink from it.

"You don't appear to be shocked by my appearance," the creature hissed in a tone that was almost a cackle. "I'm curious…who are you?"

"Does it matter?" asked Itsuya, a bored expression appearing on his face. "You're here. I'm here. We both have different motives, and we both want them to succeed. But only one of us will live."

The creature chortled softly and took a step forward. "Perhaps," it agreed. "But for one such as I, born from the shadows? You digimon may have become our new rulers in the place you so charitably call the 'Dark Area', but we are far older."

"Merely leftovers from a bygone era," stated Itsuya, pushing his glasses back up onto his face. "Evolution pushes forwards."

"But there are always those that survive, simply because they were adaptable enough to continue to thrive. And some…_some_ were hidden deeply enough to avoid the cataclysms from the digital world. Some were stronger. The Dark Ocean has great depths. Not even Dragomon rules all of it. Neither does GranDracmon, and he is the _first_ and the most powerful to arrive from the digital world."

"Yes." Itsuya lowered his flashlight. "I know. But enough talk. Shall we get down to business? I take it that you're after Suzie…"

"The child? She is an afterthought. A…_bonus._ Humans in her position can offer my kind great powers…"

"All the more reason to keep her out of your claws," smiled Itsuya, clicking off the penlight and plunging them both into darkness.

* * *

Prometheus materialized again in the middle of a hallway, frowning.

_Someone is messing with me here,_ he thought. _I should have appeared in the Juggernaut Core by now, but instead I'm stuck in here. Wherever 'here' is in Hypnos. Now let's see…_

Prometheus glanced out a window, his frown deepening.

_Damn…it would appear that we have some unwanted company heading this way now. A Tamer…

* * *

_

"How could my D-Arc have _possibly_ missed this?" asked Rika as she and Kyubimon hopped from rooftop to rooftop. True to their suspicion the disturbed feeling that they had increased in intensity as they drew closer to its source. What they didn't expect was for that source to be right where the Hypnos tower stood.

_More accurately _used_ to stand,_ thought Rika, taking in the giant tower of mist that obscured the building. Already fire trucks and police vehicles were surrounding the building, cutting off all access to it and trying to keep the populace back. Kyubimon landed on a rooftop and the two surveyed the situation.

"I don't know," replied Kyubimon. "But this could be bad. I suggest that we contact the others and let them know what's going on."

"No need to tell me twice," said Rika, closing her eyes. _"Takato?"_ she asked, opening her 'blinds' and feeling out with her mind. Almost immediately she was greeted by the boy's face and a grateful feeling pervaded her mind.

_Jeez. Who would have thought he'd be _this_ happy to see me?_ she chided herself before returning her thoughts to the situation at hand._ "Gogglehead. We have a problem here. There's a massive digital field sitting on Hypnos and for some reason our digivices never picked it up. You guys have _got_ to get down here no—!"_

_"Rika? Rika!"_

Rika didn't respond right away. Leaning forward on Kyubimon's back, the girl's eyes widened as massive dark figures began to emerge from the digital mists. The first one tore free from the fog and with an earth shattering roar, ripped through the police blockade, shattering cars and sending them flying into nearby buildings. A glowing, orange symbol materialized on its metallic chest, and powerful hydraulics moved great, clawed limbs. Twin cannons perched on its shoulders glowed ominously as they rotated in Rika's direction.

"A Machinedramon…" Rika breathed before her instincts took hold of her. "Kyubimon!"

_"Right!"_

**"Giga Cannon!" **Machinedramon boomed as its powerful bolts of energy tore free from its cannons.

* * *

"Well…when I told Henry to 'watch out for the maelstrom' this isn't what I meant."

Gorou 'Shibumi Mizuno stood at the window of Hypnos, looking at the fog barrier. Although he couldn't see anything, the flashes of light and the sound of explosions, oddly muffled by the mists, were more than enough to tell him that not all was right outside. Next to him, illuminating the hallways for him were the two cloud-like digimon with a small fire on top of their heads, Mokumon. The two glanced at each other before looking back at Shibumi. The man chuckled and scratched his beard.

"Sorry. I really do have the habit of pausing to smell the roses on the way to work, don't I? All right. Let's get going."

The two digimon nodded and they began moving again. Shibumi glanced at the numbers of doorways ever now and then to remind him of how much further they had to go before they reached the control room.

_Of all the times to have been caught in the bathroom,_ Shibumi commiserated. It struck him as odd that the backup generators hadn't yet turned back on, though by now having seen what was going on outside this was no longer something to guess at. He wondered how Janyu and the rest of his friends were doing but he quickly pushed the thought out of his mind. _Most likely they're trying to get a hold of Yamaki or head towards the Control Room like I'm doing now. We may end up meeting there so…_

Shibumi paused in the hallway as he heard voices. An eerie blue light touched the walls and Yamaki along with Urocyomon came into view, surrounded by a series of floating balls of azure fire.

"Yamaki!" exclaimed Shibumi happily, waving a hand at them and making his way over in their direction. Yamaki nodded as they met.

"Are you all right?" asked Yamaki, to which Shibumi nodded.

"Yeah. I was away from my desk when the power failed, so I figured I'd best come up here. I passed some people who were going up to check the power generators, so hopefully we'll be back up in time." Shibumi glanced over his shoulder. "Though, all things considered, I kind of doubt it."

Yamaki raised an eyebrow that. "Explain."

"There's a massive digital field on us, and there appears to be some fighting going on outside. We have a bio-emergence going on outside. I think that might be responsible for everything that's going on with the power systems."

Yamaki nodded. "I have considered that possibility. Did you see any evidence that the Tamers were out there?"

"No. I only heard some sounds of explosions…"

"I didn't hear anything," said Urocyomon.

"Sound is…a bit odd right now. I believe that the digital field may have shifted us into an isolated area of warped space…"

"Enough theories for right now," said Yamaki. "We have to keep moving and reach the control room. Once we're there, we should be able to regain control of the situation."

"Hmmm…"

Shibumi and Urocyomon nodded, and began to move, only to stop a second later as the fur on Urocyomon's tail bushed outwards. Drawing in a sharp breath, the fox digimon grabbed at it and tried to smooth it out.

"Is everything all right?" asked Shibumi, raising an eyebrow at the Rookie. Urocyomon shook his head in irritation.

"No! My fur is freaking out, and my senses are…are…" With a snarl, Urocyomon shook his head fiercely. He could swear that he felt something stabbing into his mind, as though something were reaching out to him. It set every bit of data in his body and core ablaze, leaving him on edge.

_It's like I'm in the Dark Ocean again,_ he thought, brushing his claws through his fur, trying to get it to settle down. _Just what the heck is going on here?_

A low hiss echoed upon the air, causing everyone to turn in its direction. His eyes widening, Urocyomon sent a stream of power into his _Fox Fires_ that caused them to increase their intensity, illuminating the hallway to nearly normal lighting. Standing in the hallway were a group of shadowy creatures with long, spindly limbs and cold, yellow colored eyes.

"Fox of the Paths," hissed the one at the forefront of the group, raising a clawed hand towards Urocyomon. "You…are…ours at last."

* * *

A/N: So I had a personal problem get dropped on me last week, so I wasn't able to work on this chapter. Anyway, the Dark Ocean has sent invaders into the Hypnos looking for Urocyomon. The shadow creatures that live there are probably some of the creepiest things digimon has ever spawned this side of the D-Reaper, which on its own brought the nightmare fuel to high-octane levels if you think about it. In the original episode they wanted to mate with Kari to create descendents that would overthrow their undersea master, Dragomon. Nasty buggers them, even if they didn't show themselves to be particularly strong in the series proper.

A little more revealing stuff about Prometheus _and_ Itsuya in this chapter, which I have to admit was pretty fun to write as it brought a little bit more of my plans into the limelight (rather ironic since Hypnos is currently in a blackout). More, as always, will be revealed as the story progresses.

Until the next chapter. :P

-Crazyeight

* * *

* * *

9


	35. Darkness: Part 2

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.

Revival

Chapter: 35/ Darkness: Part 2

Takato stood there, his hands clutching the sides of his desk as his eyes stared outwards, completely fraught with emotion and conflict, seeing something that could not possibly be, yet was there nonetheless.

A giant metallic maw, menacing and dark, stood prominently beneath a pair of empty eye sockets while twin pairs of shoulder-mounted cannons glowed ominously. Below them were a pair of claws, one was rigid with three blades sprouting from a stump of a cybernetic arm while the other had three mechanical claws snap outwards like a trinity of jaws before shutting closed. It was a sight that Takato knew all too well, and it held him trapped within its grasp.

_"A Machinedramon…"_ the voice of Rika whispered in his mind and Takato's mind leapt on it.

_Holy—! A _Machinedramon? _He was one of the Dark Masters from the TV show!_

**"Giga Cannon!"** Boomed Machinedramon suddenly as the glowing cannons let loose with their full fury. The scene lurched suddenly and Takato found himself grabbing for a fur and ribbon that wasn't there, trying to retain his sense of balance from the perspective he was seeing.

_"Kyubimon!"_

"Ahhh!" he found himself screaming, pin wheeling ungainly. Despite this, Takato's mind had yet to fully grasp what was going on as it continued to rant on about the digimon that was presently firing with everything it had. _A Machinedramon! I don't believe it! A _Machinedra—!"

_"Gogglehead!"_ shouted Rika's voice in his head so hard that he grunted in pain. _"Less fanboy and more Tamer! Get your butt down here NOW!"_

The world lurched again and Takato's balance spiraled completely out of his control. The next thing he knew pain exploded in the back of his head as his skull impacted with the corner of a desk. Crying out in pain, Takato hit the floor.

"Takato!" shouted an adult's concerned voice. Immediately a hand fell on him and the next thing he knew Kazu was hauling the boy back to his feet.

"Dude," said Kazu, staring at him with a confused look on his face. "What was the deal with that dance just now? You dreaming of Rika in class now? If that's how she dances I'm _glad_ that you're going out with her."

"Kazu!" shouted Ayaka angrily from the corner of the classroom, sending a ferocious glare in his direction. Kazu winced, but smirked.

"On second thought…since it's you, I'd probably feel sorry for her instead."

"This is _not_ the time for jokes, Mr. Shioda," said the teacher firmly as he got down next to Takato, already holding up a finger in front of Takato's eyes and moving it slightly to check his visual acuity. "Are you all right?"

"Uh…huh?" Takato shook his head, trying to clear it. Stars shone in his vision and a dull, heavy warmth spread along his head, muddling the waters of his thoughts. He shook his head again, and this time things seemed to clear.

"I think we'd better get you down to the nurses office," said the teacher, his expression full of concern. He glanced up towards the class. "Kenta. I'd like for you and Ayaka to escort Mr. Matsuki to…"

"No!"

"Excuse me?" asked the teacher, staring at Takato in bewilderment.

"I can't!" Takato said, struggling to get to his feet. He was feeling much better already. "Rika…Rika's in trouble! There's an attack going on in the city! We've got to get there!"

"Uh…dude?" asked Kazu, quickly voicing the thoughts of everyone in the class. "There's no way that there's an attack going on. Our digivices haven't gone off, and the alarms aren't either. Our digimon aren't busting their butts to get over here either. You must be delusional. Maybe you picked up one of Rika's daydreams or something. You know that she breathes Taming."

"I'm afraid that I don't understand what you're talking about," said the teacher, raising an eyebrow. "But regardless, I still think that you should get yourself looked at. You hit your head pretty hard there and…"

"Rika's in trouble though!" said Takato in a loud voice. He was on his feet now and he began to lurch forward. The teacher placed a hand on his shoulders to both stop and support him.

"Takato. While I may not know who you're referring to, I will check for any reports for possible digimon attacks. But I have to inform you that as the school alert systems are tied directly into the government warning systems, it's impossible for the alarms to not register a digimon attack."

"I'm going," asserted Takato, brushing the teacher's grip off firmly. "I've got to get out there and _help_ her! You don't understand—!"

The teacher reached out again, this time pressing his hands more firmly to restrain the boy. "Takato—!"

"You don't understand! I _have to __**go!"**_

With surprising strength, Takato broke free from the teacher's hold and leapt over Kazu's desk, completely surprising both the teacher and the class.

"Takato!" shouted Kenta, clambering to his feet. "What are you—hey! At least _wait!"_

"Jeez," said Ayaka in awe as she quickly followed her boyfriend. "Just what is going through his mind? Has he gone mental?"

As soon as she said that, the sound of a distant explosion echoed off in the distance, and the long, loud howl of an alarm immediately followed, filling the city as more explosions followed.

Kazu glanced over a the teacher. "Looks like both of our alarm systems are broken," he said before breaking into a run after his friends.

The sound of the school's alarm bell broke the stunned silence of the class a second later.

* * *

"Heeey!" shouted Kazu as he sped through the halls. "What's the deal?"

"Yeah," added Ayaka, rapidly gaining on Takato while behind, Kenta labored to stay within close distance behind them. Ayaka threw a worried look over her shoulder at the boy, remembering he was never very good at running before looking back at Takato. "You've got that crazy link with Rika. What fight is she picking this time?"

"I don't know what's going on," replied Takato, arriving at a stairwell and quickly jumping down stairs. "All I know is that a Machinedramon just like from the old TV show bio-emerged and attacked Rika just outside of Hypnos!"

"Wha…? Hypnos?" asked Kazu, raising an eyebrow as they quickly followed, skipping stairs to keep up. "What was she doing there? …Hold on. A _Machinedramon?"_

"Don't start!" snapped Ayaka, pulling out her pink and yellow trimmed D-Arc from the belt she had clipped around her waist; the only article of clothing that the school would allow the Tamers to wear in addition to their uniforms. A light emerged from its screen and she quickly began speaking into it. "Crusadermon. We've got a problem."

_"Yes. I see smoke rising in the distance and the alarm has already been sounded. I'm heading there now."_

Ayaka nodded.

"All right. Be careful. This one is supposed to be a tough one. Takato got a glimpse of it through Rika who's already there. He says it's a Machinedramon."

_"…I see,"_ replied the Royal Knight, her tone carefully neutral. _"This should be interesting then…"_

"You old Battleaxe…" Ayaka rolled her eyes. "Don't play games with it. You know the drill. If you can't reason with it, fight it. If you can't beat it outright, contain it or retreat until help arrives."

_"Of course,"_ said Crusadermon. _"How do you humans say it? Over and out?"_

"I really need to keep her away from war movies," Ayaka grumbled, pocketing her D-Arc as they reached the landing. She quickly veered to the right. "All right! I'm going to get Henry! He's probably on his way now, but I've got to check his class anyw—!"  
"No need to check," came the voice of the half-Chinese Tamer as both he and Noriko raced up to meet them. "Come on, we've got to get out of here. The teacher's are checking the reports for further instructions, but we don't have much time before the students get let out."  
"Then let's go," nodded Takato, and together they all tore in the direction of the nearest exit.

_Hang on, Rika,_ thought Takato as their feet pounded on the ceramic tiles towards the outside. _I know you can do it. I _believe_ you can do it.

* * *

_

_"Biomerge activate!"_

The cry rang through the air, drowned out by the explosive flurry of Machinedramon's _Giga Cannon_ attack as the blasts sailed through the city. There was a flash of light, and a moment later the armored form of Sakuyamon stood proudly in the air, her bronze vajra staff gripped in one hand. The shaman's gaze settled on the cybernetic digimon as its cannons began to cycle through their power up again, targeting her. Sakuyamon pressed her lips into one thin line.

_"It's going to take some time for Takato and the others to reach us,"_ said the voice of Renamon from Sakuyamon's lips. A moment later the tone changed, dropping an octave and taking on a more sarcastic note.

_"Then it's time for us to strut our stuff."_

Within the blue data sphere that lay at the heart of the shaman, Rika smiled, an act that was matched by the lips on her partner's Mega form. With the two moving as one, Sakuyamon leapt upwards and slashed her staff through the air before bringing it before her, spinning it in her hands. Violet light traced a ring in front of her and Sakuyamon's lips began to move, mouthing an incantation.

_"Love's blessing. Peace reigns. The thunder falls."_

With that, an intricate series of symbols materialized within the ring and fox tail-like fires sprung forth from its edges. With a powerful roar, Machinedramon stomped forward, shattering the street. White light glowed within the beast's cannons and a second later powerful blasts of raw energy rocketed forth, surging towards their target. Sakuyamon smiled and whipped her staff away from her spell.

"Gotcha."

The foxtails lashed out and grabbed the incoming blasts, pulling them into the circle. White-hot energy flared within the spell circle and Sakuyamon stretched a gloved hand towards it. With but a tap, a ripple spread throughout the circle and it began to move backwards along her arm. The white energy flared across her armor and uniform, altering it into a red dress and white robe. Her vajra staff also shifted. The bronze metal shortened in length, becoming wood, and a series of zigzag shaped streams of paper sprouted at its tip, sending streams of light sparkling off to the side.

_"Sakuyamon Kibuki Mode,"_ breathed the priestess as the transformation completed. She glanced down at herself, nodding in approval.

_Nice to know that worked out as well as we thought it would,_ Rika thought, a smirk on her face.

Fixing her attention on Machinedramon, she narrowed her eyes.

_"This guy's infected by something,"_ mused Rika, extending Sakuyamon's senses out towards the Machinedramon. _"There's something running rampant through his digi-core. Could be a virus…"_

_ "Then what do you say that we extinguish that virus,"_ replied Renamon. Rika nodded within her data sphere and a second later Sakuyamon became a blur, rematerializing in front of Machinedramon's chest. Heat lashed across her body, pulsating from the orange circle emblazoned on the Machinedramon's chest and the shaman held up her hands in a warding gesture.

_"Jeez…what…_is_ this thing? To have all that heat baking off of it…"_

_ "Rika. We must move quickly! Every second counts!"_

Within her data sphere, Rika nodded and spread Sakuyamon's arms before swinging her wand to her left, hard enough to make the zigzag paper attachment rustle. She paused for but a moment before repeating the movement, this time swinging it to the right. The rustling sound repeated, and there followed another pause before she continuing again, this time swinging it to the left.

On the third swing, a bright light burst from the streamers and Sakuyamon thrust it at the glowing orange circle. The light stabbed outwards, driving into the Machinedramon's chest. The orange circle shuddered but once before shattering. The Machinedramon roared as it staggered forth from the impact. Breathing a heavy sigh, Sakuyamon floated upwards, a small smile beaming on her face.

"Are you all rig—?" she began, only for Machinedramon to boom _Giga Cannon,_ sending a tumultuous blast of energy roaring at her. Sakuyamon rose her hands, rapidly mouthing an incantation and a second later a bubble of violet energy materialized around her, deftly deflecting the attack. Sakuyamon scowled beneath her facemask, matching the agitated expression on Rika's face within.

_"You have_ got _to be kidding me! This guy _still_ wants to fight?"_

_ "It would seem so, Rika,"_ mused Renamon, and outside, Sakuyamon's brow knotted into a deep frown._ "It could be that this is his natural nature…if the TV show is anything to account for. Or perhaps he was just too far gone from whatever infected him to begin with."_

_ "So much for diplomacy," _grumbled Rika, getting into a stance. A distasteful look crossed her features._ "Time to fight."_

Machinedramon roared and began to power up his Giga Cannons once more. Sakuyamon raised her wand, steeling herself for the destruction she knew was sure to follow.

She needn't have bothered.

A flash of yellow ripped through the air, and a second later Machinedramon's right shoulder cannon began to slide off the beast. Another flash of yellow, and a massive explosion erupted in the other cannon. Metal shrieked as Machinedramon fell forward with a heavy crash.

"Who was that?" asked Sakuyamon, dumbfounded by what she had just seen. There followed a small chuckle from behind her. Turning, the shaman found herself staring at Crusadermon, the massive Giga Cannon that had just seconds ago been so neatly sheared off held high in one hand.

"I may not be the _other_ Royal Knight in shining armor, but I suppose I will have to do. Princesses must always have one by their side."

"Crusadermon," said Sakuyamon in a deadpan tone, indicating that she was far from amused by her companion's words. "I don't suppose you could have been a _little_ bit gentler with that attack?"

"My apologies," Crusadermon replied, inclining her head respectfully. "The explosion was not my intention. I had merely been seeking to disarm the digimon before it could do any more damage. The creature's power and girth did not lead me to believe subtler method could be found so I enacted a more direct approach." Crusadermon glanced at the Machinedramon as it struggled to rise to its feet. "I did not expect a power enhancer coupling to its secondary cannon. Someone's been making some enhancements to this Machinedramon."

Making a _hmmphing_ sound, Sakuyamon lowered herself to the ground and set the cannon down with a casual toss. Her sash blades rose up into the air like coiled snakes, moving as though they were surveying their opponent.

"Still looking for a fight?" Crusadermon placed her hands on her hips and shook her head. "Guess we're going to have to do this the easy way…"

_Somehow, I don't like the way she phrased that,_ thought Rika, eyeing Crusadermon warily. She looked down at her wand and then back up at the Machinedramon. Why was it still fighting? Was it really as Renamon said? Was it in its nature, or was it too heavily corrupted from whatever had infected it.

_No time to think about that now,_ thought Sakuyamon, beginning to wave her wand through the air once more. _It looks like we don't have a choice anymore. This guy is going to keep on fighting, and if we drag it out any further people are going to get hurt…_ Sakuyamon glanced around and winced. Everywhere she looked there lay cracked streets, destroyed police cars, and holes torn through buildings where attacks had missed.

_ …More people are going to get hurt,_ she amended, gripping her wand tightly. Sakuyamon gritted her teeth. _Sometimes, I really hate this job…_

With a wild cry, Sakuyamon slashed her wand through the air, getting ready to take to the offensive when all of a sudden her hand stopped moving. Raising one eyebrow in confusion she glanced up to find a wire affixed to her wrist. She quickly followed it to the mist that surrounded Hypnos. A dark figure, small in stature—_much_ smaller by far compared to Machinedramon—emerged from its depths, carrying a toy hammer as large as its body. A red hat sat on its head as a mechanical, needle-like nose protruded from a face made of wood. Eyes that were cold and malevolent stared outwards, and on its chest was emblazoned a glowing, orange circle.

"What the…?A _Puppetmon?"

* * *

_

"Ours…" clicked one of the dark figures as they began to advance on the group of humans and digimon standing before them. "Ours…at long last. After all this time, we will no longer be denied our vengeance."

"Who are you?" demanded Yamaki hotly, standing his ground firmly.

"Those are the creatures from the Dark Area," replied Urocyomon, getting into a defensive crouch. "I met them while I was there. I have no idea what they are beyond that."

Yamaki gritted his teeth. This wasn't good. They were unarmed, and Urocyomon had no real combat techniques to speak of. The Mokumon likewise weren't strong enough to fend off any serious attack, alone or together.

_If we could just get enough power and computers online, I could use Juggernaut or Yuggoth to take care of them._

Unfortunately, he knew painfully well that neither of those options were available to him. That left them with the only viable option of retreating…

A flash of light appeared behind him and a second later a cloaked figure wearing a pointy hat and bearing a crooked wooden staff with a sun design on its tip leapt forward, golden energy circling around one gloved hand.

**"Magical Game!"** the cloaked digimon shouted, and a bolt of electrical energy shot outwards, impacting the nearest shadow creature and sending it flying backwards with a cry. The other shadow creatures charged forward, hissing angrily.

"Wizardmon!" shouted Shibumi, taking a step forwards and raising a device in one hand. Yamaki looked at the device in shock.

_A D-Arc? When did he…?_

Shibumi pressed a button on the D-Arc just below the screen. "Digi-Modify! Speed program activate!"

At the command, Wizardmon's body blurred, and he vanished a split second before the shadow creatures fell upon him. A moment later he was behind them, a ball of energy materializing in one hand.

**"Thunder Ball!"** he shouted, tossing the energy sphere at the shadow creatures. It impacted them and detonated with explosive force, causing them to cry out and turn towards the digimon.

"Annoying sorcerer," growled one of the shadow creatures. "You stand in our way of liberation. We will_ not_ allow this…"

"Too bad," interrupted Urocyomon, grinning from his spot on the floor. A piece of chalk was held in one paw, its edge touching the floor. Bringing his remaining paw down on it, a bright circle materialized, causing the ground to shatter and send the shadow creatures toppling down into the next floor below. "Happy landings," laughed Urocyomon before Wizardmon rushed over to him and began to pull him down the hall, quickly followed by Yamaki and Shibumi.

"We've got to get to the main control room," said Yamaki. "If we can access the remote network we can activate Juggernaut and disperse the digital field."

"That works in theory," said Shibumi. "But we don't know half of what's going on with this situation. This could be a result of the program problem's we've been experiencing because of the situation with Juggernaut."

Yamaki paused. "You believe there's a connection?"

"I only thought of it just now," Shibumi threw a look over his shoulder in the direction that they left their pursuers in. Nothing but darkness filled the hallway behind them as everyone's feet pounded the tile floors of Hypnos. "If those creatures are really from the same place that Urocyomon described, then I'd say there's a good chance that it's the case. Kuroda created a massive portal to feed the oncoming traffic from that layer of the digital world that appeared right before Urocyomon's rescue right through our systems. It's possible that they used Juggernaut as a gateway in the same manner that the Devas did."

_Then this situation…is once again my fault. Hypnos was the first to create a weak point between the two worlds…_

Yamaki hesitated in following that train of thought. It did him no good to think of what-ifs. Only what he could do in response to this latest situation. Curiously, he glanced at the digivice in Shibumi's hand, but for the time being chose not to comment on it until they were well out of harm's way. There would be a time and place for everything.

"Hey!" shouted Urocyomon, squirming in his captor's grasp. "Put me down! I've got feet and shadow-shifting ability! I can move just as well as anyone!"

"Sorry," said Wizardmon, glancing over at the humans behind them. He loosened his grip at Shibumi's nod and the fox digimon quickly took up pace beside them.

"This is nuts," he grumbled. "I was pretty sure those things couldn't leave their prison. Every story I've heard of says the same thing about the Dark Area. It's a prison for dark digimon. I once heard stories of a _Daemon_ getting trapped there, and for someone like him to not be able to get out is pretty telling of the kind of strength it would take to get out of that place."

"Stories can sometimes be false," said Yamaki, glancing over his shoulder. There didn't appear to be any sign of pursuit, but the blonde haired head of Hypnos felt the sickening belief that didn't mean that there _wasn't_. "What do they want with you?"

"How should _I_ know?" asked Urocyomon hotly. "I'm just a Rookie. There's no way anyone would want me for anything."

"You _are_ the male line of Renamon, aren't you?" asked Wizardmon from next to him. "There's a library in the digital world. There are some books that state that you're supposed to be fairly special. You are a 'key' of sorts in the digital world and…"

"…And I think we'll have enough of that," boomed a voice from in front of them. At it, Yamaki drew up short, immediately scanning the hallway for any sign of an intruder. Although he saw nothing, raw instinct caused him to throw himself to the side, narrowly avoiding getting struck by a bolt of black energy. Yamaki fell into a roll and threw himself forward, allowing his instincts and training to carry himself towards the source of his attacker. Although he doubted he would have any effect, he hoped to buy the others time to make their escape. A dark shape came into view and Yamaki threw a fist at it…

…Only to have it caught by a strong, firm grip from a human hand. All at once, Yamaki's body went limp and his sense of the world vanished as unconsciousness claimed him.

"That's better," continued the voice, firing another black blast towards the others. Wizardmon spun his staff in the air, mouthing incantations. Before he could complete it, the blast split into three energy arrows that snaked around, striking both him and Shibumi in the back, causing them both to collapse to the ground. Urocyomon was faster however as he phased out of view and teleported away from the attack. Wizardmon fell to the ground and a moment later his body split into two, smoke clouds with a small, barely visible ember burning at the top of their head.

Prometheus emerged from the shadows, an annoyed expression on his face as he watched his remaining arrow coil around, trying to search for its target before vanishing.

"How troublesome…"

A powerful arm wrapped around his neck from behind, causing Prometheus to jerk in surprise.

"You got that right," growled Urocyomon. "Now…tell me who you are and why you're attacking us. Don't try to lie, your smell _more_ than gives you away, not to mention that I have _excellent_ eyesight in the dark. Did you bring those shadow creatures from the Dark Area? Talk! Talk or we'll get to see how the Resurrection Protocols affect one such as you!"

A grin curved along Prometheus' lips as he reached up and grabbed Urocyomon's arm.

"Interesting set of choices there, but I'm afraid…"

Prometheus' body phased and disintegrated, causing Urocyomon to stagger forwards in surprise. Before he could even do anything else, the silver furred kitsune jerked violently as a hand covered in violet flames skewered him in the back.

"…I'm just one step ahead of you," finished Prometheus, once more stepping out of the shadows. Grabbing Urocyomon by the shoulder he twisted his arm and ripped it free from the fox's back, revealing a small, blue colored flame. As Urocyomon collapsed heavily to the floor Prometheus' grin vanished and was replaced by a regretful look.

"Sorry to have to do this, but this has to be done for the sake of the digital world."

Closing his eyes, a hole opened up in Prometheus' chest and he inserted the blue flame inside. Reopening his eyes, he looked down the dark hallway, a hard, challenging expression on his face.

"Come and get me if you can," he declared before vanishing into the shadows around him. A moment later a group of cold, gold-colored eyes appeared, followed by a series of rapid clicking before they all disappeared as suddenly as they came.

* * *

A/N: Kudos bars go to Bookworm Gal for coming up with the line Rika uses to chide Takato for his fanboyism. It was just such a fun line that I couldn't resist using it. Major uber points to you, buddy. :P

Initially I had thought to write Takato as being a little more forceful and violent in getting out of class, but on further reflection, it didn't strike me as something Takato would do, as he usually restrained himself in all but the most serious and emotionally devastating of situations. I still decided to show him as being forceful in his need to get out of school (once he got clocked on the head by a well-placed desk that is), but I wonder if I should have gone with the original idea. Given the situation and his high emotional connection with Rika it seems likely that he would act a little more irrational than normal. But at the same time it still strikes me that Takato would be more tactful and not as likely to resort to violence, even if he wasn't getting his point across very well.

Sakuyamon's ability, for those who are wondering, was meant to showcase Rika's own training with her partner's Mega form. It was shown in the season proper that Sakuyamon could alter or vary her techniques using something like incantations, so I felt that she would not have been slack on that, and indeed would have been working actively to increase her effectiveness in battle as best as she could as normal digimon attacks can only get you so far against certain enemies. In this case, her spell took Machinedramon's attack and used it to fuel her transformation directly into her Kabuki Mode at minimal energy cost to herself, a useful feature, though at the present it is good only as a deterrent against enemies that act like artillery and long range weapon batteries (Machinedramon). It's not the sort of thing that's currently useful against up close and personal enemies like Puppetmon, who makes his debut to shift the balance of the fight.

Shibumi having a digivice was something that I toyed around with in my head over this week, more of which I'll be detailing later on. For now though my lips are sealed. ;P

Besides, I really liked bringing in Wizardmon. :)

And Prometheus messes up Urocyomon. For what reason? That's going to have to wait until another chapter.

'Till next time then.

-Crazyeight

* * *

9


	36. Darkness: Part 3

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.

Revival

Chapter: 36/ Darkness: Part 3

Itsuya stood in the hallway with his penlight on, carefully cleaning his glasses with a handkerchief. Lying on the floor, battered and beaten, was the shadow creature, one gold eye staring listlessly up at him while the other was swollen shut. Liquid flowed from the creature's hand as it gripped its stomach. Raising its remaining, free hand, the creature began to drag itself away from Itsuya, its body shaking with the effort. It drew in a sharp hiss and soon stopped, finding itself unable to continue. Its good eye glanced down at its legs. They were twisted and mangled.

"You won't get very far in the shape that you're in," said Itsuya casually as he inspected his glasses with his penlight. "As a matter of fact, I'd suggest that you try to not move. You might aggravate your injuries if you continue."

"What…what are you…?" the shadow creature asked. Its voice sounded thick, as though it were full of fluid. Itsuya gave it a small smile and replaced his glasses.

"That I can't tell you. But I'm surprised that you can't tell. Your kind and I have met before but once." Itsuya's smile widened slightly in remembrance. "That is to say, _always._ Ahhh…I do not remember the last time I joked. It has been…far too long."

"You're not human…"

"As if that hasn't been established by now."Itsuya focused his light on the shadow creature. "Nothing but devils in this place right now." Itsuya strode over to the shadow creature and knelt down next to it, shining the penlight in its face. "Thanks to everyone keeping their heads low in the dark, I can afford to go all out without being seen. Well…it's still risky, but the odds have been significantly lowered. Prometheus can take care of the rest."

The shadow creature's good eye narrowed. "I _do_ know you…Snake in the grass…"

"Good," Itsuya nodded. "You remember now. But, memory or not, I'm afraid that I can't allow you or your kind to stay here. You have crossed the border—something that you should have _not_ done. You know the rules. You made your choices. Down in the depths you will stay. That is your fate."

The shadow creature began to struggle into a sitting position. "We will _not_ serve you bastard creatures…you _false_ pretenders…"

"Whether it is digimon or something else, you will serve. And if you serve yourselves, that does not change the fact that it is the Dark Area that you will stay in. You will go no further than that."

"For now…but that day will not be fore—!"

"This conversation is becoming boring," interrupted Itsuya, pushing his glasses up onto his face. "Goodbye."

Reaching out with one hand, a swirling mass of darkness reached out from his palm and enveloped the shadow creature. It screamed but once in defiance, and a second later, it was gone. Itsuya got up with a sigh, knuckling his back.  
"How it is that my master even put up with those things, I have no idea." Glancing over at the unconscious Suzie and Lopmon, Itsuya made his way over to them and lifted them carefully into his arms. "I think it's time we vacated to some place a little safer and out of the way. Wouldn't you say?"

With that, Itsuya reentered the room that they had exited and shut the door behind them with a click.

**…**

Guilmon's tail lightly tapped the ground as he snored away.

_Mmmm…Guilmon Bread…_ he thought, his tail twitching again. Off to the side, Terriermon giggled and glanced up at Guardromon.

"I'm telling you, he's dreaming about food."

"Are you certain?" asked Guardromon. "I remember him mentioning about how his dreams are always full of some kind of white light. He informed me of this when he had been telling me about his first incident down in the tunnels."

Terriermon huffed and placed his tiny paws on his hips. "Oh, come on! This is Guilmon we're talking about! I know he's a mon of very little brain, but he's not _that_ empty headed! If he's not thinking about Takatomon, he's thinking about food. He's that simple."

"Hmmm…" Guardromon glanced over at Guilmon and scratched his armored face. "Well…I suppose you're right…"

Off in the distance a muffled explosion resounded upon the air, causing the two digimon to glance in its direction.

"That's the second time I've heard that," mused Terriermon. "They must be doing some pretty heavy construction work or something. Normally only digimon would make that kind of ruckus."

"You should hear Kazu's mother whenever I step in her flower bed. I do believe she's even louder, and twice as terrible as an agent of the D-Reaper."

"Yeah, but at least she feeds you," grumbled Terriermon before heaving a sigh. "I'm bored. I really wish a digimon would show up or something—_anything_ to get out of sitting here all day. What does Henry think I am, his pet?" Terriermon changed the pitch of his voice as he began speaking in a mockery of his Tamer. "_"Stay here, Terriermon. Don't cause any trouble Terriermon. Don't momentai me, Terriermon."_ I swear, one of these days that guy is going to die from an over clocked heart." Terriermon giggled. "Knowing him, he'll probably do it when he has sex for the first time."

Guardromon blinked. "I'm…afraid I don't understand."

"Let's just say that for humans it's just like building a robot, only it grows in a girl's stomach or something and makes them all fat and irritable. At least, that's how it looks on TV anyway."

"I'm afraid I still don't understand. Why would they…" Guardromon paused and frowned. "_"Build a human inside a girl's stomach?"_"

"You really need to access the Internet," chuckled Terriermon mischievously. "But I'm sure there are lots of reasons for it—one of which is that it's supposed to feel good, but it's also how they make more of themselves."

"I…see." Guardromon scratched his armor again, contemplating this. After a moment a puzzled look fell over his eyes. "Actually…I don't. It _feels good_ and yet it makes girls…_fat and irritable?_ Why would they do that then if it made them that way? It sounds so…conflicting."

Terriermon looked at the mechanical Champion with a raised eyebrow.

"Really, how could you have been here for this long and _not_ know even this much? You can listen in on police radios and broadcast waves, but you don't check out the Internet or anything? What kind of Guardromon are you? Even _Renamon_ knows more about this stuff then I do." Terriermon tapped his chin in confusion. "Kind of weird that she does, now that I think about it. She has no idea how to use a computer…"

Once again, the sound of a muffled explosion reached them, and Terriermon's ears twitched in agitation.

"That's really starting to bug me."

"Hmmm…perhaps I should tune into the police radios to see if there's anything we should be concerned about. After all, even though neither of us sense a digimon that doesn't mean that we might not be of some use. After all, we are public officials now. We should be available for any crisis that might arise."

"Well…okay." Terriermon trotted on over to Guardromon and hopped up on his head. "I'm bored anyway, and at least this'll give me something to distract me. Even if it's for five seconds."

"Must you be on top of my head though? Sometimes you interfere with the signal."

"Momentai!" proclaimed Terriermon, proudly expanding his ears and raising them into the air. "All you need is the ol' rabbit ears and you'll be fine!"

"Oh, dear…"

Guardromon closed his eyes, and within short order, various news reports began to infiltrate his audio circuits. He furrowed his brow as he began to sort them out.

"Oh my…there's quite a bit here. Some kind of commotion outside of Hypnos. The military is being considered to be called in…"

"What?" Terriermon raised both eyebrows in surprise. "Really? What's going on?"

"It would appear that there are two digimon currently rampaging and…oh."

"Ooogh…" Terriermon toppled off Guardromon's head and landed gracefully on the ground. "Kinda slow in the uptake, aren't you? That settles it!" Terriermon quickly went over to Guilmon and immediately began shaking him. "Hey! Come on Guilmon! Wake up! This is important!"

"Is Takatomon here yet?" asked the crimson dinosaur in a sleepy tone. Raising his head he glanced around and yawned. "Mmmnnn…Terriermon. Why'd you wake me up?"

"Because there's a digimon attack going on at Hypnos. We've got to get going so we can help save the day."

"Digimon?" Guilmon frowned and immediately got to his feet, all exhaustion dropping from him immediately. "But…I don't smell any digimon except you guys."

"It could be one that we missed," supplied Terriermon, trying to be helpful. _It's not like it'd be the first time we missed out on one or two…or a dozen…_

"Actually it would appear that they have just bio-emerged," noted Guardromon. "The reports indicate that a digital field descended upon Hypnos shortly before the first explosion that we heard."

"But we didn't sense anythi—oh…never mind! We've got to get a hold of Henry and the others so that we can start kicking some serious booty! I don't know about you guys, as much as I want to get down there and start kicking some butt, I can't do much with this tiny body especially when…"

An even louder explosion rang out and all eyes turned towards the plume of smoke that was rising into the air. Bolts of bright energy shot outwards and a loud roar followed immediately after them.

"Uh…that sounded…pretty loud."

"I'm not afraid," said Guilmon with determination as he took a step forward. "All I need is Takato. Nothing can stop us whenever we're together."

Sniffing the air, Guilmon turned and immediately dashed off.

"Hey! Guilmon! Where are you going?"

"To Takato's school!" the reptile replied.

"Well wait for me, would ya?" the rabbit dog demanded, immediately bounding after him. "Sheesh! With feet this small I can only get so far you know!"

Guardromon shook his head before casting a worried glance over his shoulder. More smoke was rising now, and growing in thickness.

_A digimon that has bio-emerged without any of us detecting it. What kind of danger is appearing in the digital world now?_

Eyeing the rising smoke warily, his rocket engines activated and he went off in search of his partner.

**...**

Dracmon watched the battle with eyes, hidden beneath his leaf-shaped mask, with growing surprise.

_No way. This is…this is impossible, isn't it? Those guys…those are the Dark Masters! Er…aren't they? They look like them, but…_

Dracmon narrowed his eyes. Something about the whole situation seemed wrong to him. On one side, Machinedramon continued to fight Crusadermon, despite being bereft of his primary method of attacking while the Royal Knight hacked and slashed away at him with her ribbons. This time, unlike her earlier success with his cannons, her attacks were far less effective, though they scored the metal plating and cut exposed wires, the massive war machine refused to go down or back off, instead attacking relentlessly with its massive claws. Crusadermon avoided his slow, lumbering attacks with ease due to her speed, but often at the cost of extensive property damage. Neither appeared to be gaining any ground against each other and it didn't look like things were changing anytime soon.

_This…probably wasn't the best time to slip away from Terriermon and the rest,_ thought Dracmon, looking over to the other two combatants. Sakuyamon was presently tugging on her captured wrist, trying to free herself from Puppetmon's wires while simultaneously beating off the rest with her wand. Flashes of light exploded in midair as the wires failed to reach their target and fell to the ground, writhing like snakes. Puppetmon didn't stop trying however, and continued to send wire after wire towards the shaman priestess, determined to capture her within his grasp.

There was something else though. Leaning forward, Dracmon peered closer, taking note of the ominous, glowing circles emblazoned on the chests of the two Dark Master digimon. Dracmon couldn't be sure, but…there appeared to be something _familiar_ about that circle, as though he knew it from somewhere. For the life of him he couldn't figure out why that was, but it…_called_ to him, tugged at him on some primal chord. Shaking his head, Dracmon cleared his thoughts.

_Something's _really_ not right here,_ he thought, taking another look at the two Megas. _Those two digimon… Huh. Funny, they're not acting any stronger. I've heard about this glowing symbol thing from the Tamers, and they always talked about how the digimon they faced that had 'em were always stronger than they should have been. These guys don't seem to be strong t all. In fact, they seem to be…_dead.

Dracmon glanced at Puppetmon. There was something in his eyes that looked to be vacant and empty, as though he weren't entirely there.

_Well, either way,_ thought Dracmon, dusting off his hands as he crouched down. _One way or another, I've got to get in there. I only hope that one of these guys kills me before Miki does it for them. Man, she's going to be pissed that I didn't stay where she told me too…_

With that, Dracmon leapt down into the fray.

**…**

_ This…is starting to become annoying,_ growled Rika inwardly as outwardly Sakuyamon swatted away another wire. _"We're going to have to change tactics. But…how? He's got us caught, and he's limiting what I can do myself with these weird wires of his!"_

_ "His specialty is treating everyone and everything as though it were a toy,"_ commented Renamon from the darkness surrounding Rika's blue colored data sphere. _"But he doesn't have all of us trapped yet."_

_ "How observant…_Renamon!"Rika grunted as she swung Sakuyamon's arm up again and sent a river of violet energy ripping another set of wires to shreds before they could reach her. _"Care to tell me something I don't already know? I can't bring out our full power as long as he has just a piece of us caught!"_

_ "True, but remember this Rika. He may have us, but that also means that _we_ have him as well."_

_ "Huh?"_ Rika's eyes lit up as realization struck her._ "Ohhh…"_

With a sharp movement, Sakuyamon suddenly pulled violently backwards with her captured wrist. Puppetmon lurched forward, taken off guard by the unexpected maneuver. His concentration broken, Sakuyamon reached forward and grabbed firmly on the wire that held her while simultaneously spinning her wand.

**"Amethyst Wind!"** shouted Sakuyamon as energy that had previously been restricted by the wooden Mega once again flowed through her. Thousands of crystal shards of sparkling purple materialized around Sakuyamon before flowing into a whirling vortex before her. Smirking, Sakuyamon checked her grip on the wire and once more pulled forward, this time with even _more_ force behind it. Puppetmon's feet were ripped from the ground and he flew forward into the storm wall of Amethyst shards. The Mega let out a horrible scream as the crystals tore at him, gouging tears all along his wooden body. Within seconds he broke free from the storm, continuing to barrel onwards towards Sakuyamon. Still smirking, Sakuyamon tucked her wand into her dress's waist belt and pulled back her free arm. Getting into a stance, she waited until Puppetmon was close enough before belting him clear across the face, sending him flying back into the razor-sharp whirlwind, where the crystals once again began tearing into him, quickly reducing him to shards of data.

_"You didn't have to punch him, Rika,"_ mooted Renamon. Feeling as though she were being given a quizzical look from her partner, Rika tilted her head to one side, still smirking while she outwardly cracked Sakuyamon's knuckles.

_"Yeah,"_ she said, reaching down and ripping Puppetmon's wire free from her wrist. _"But I felt better doing it. Now…"_ Sakuyamon plucked her wand from her belt as she prepared to assist Crusadermon in her part of the fight. Before she could do so, a polite cough from off to her right caught her attention.

"You know…sometimes I wonder if your dork of a boyfriend feels inadequate as your knight in shining armor. I mean…you end up rescuing yourself so many times it makes having him around kinda redundant."

"Dracmon," Sakuyamon greeted, spotting the Rookie as he was shaking his head in amazement. "Are any of the others here?"

"Nope. I…ah…slipped away from the park a while ago and saw all this going on. Funny. I didn't sense these guys busting through. Do you think that means that they won't be here?"

"No. Takato knows the situation and he's on his way here." A small smile graced her features just then. "In fact, he should be along any second now…"

As if to prove her point, a bright flash of electric blue light illuminated the ground around them as a powerful voice boomed upon the air.

**"Lightning Joust!"**

A beam of pure energy smashed into Machinedramon as he raised one arm to again try and strike Crusadermon. Sparks flew and the machine monster roared, staggering back. Sakuyamon traced it to its source, her smile widening to find Gallantmon in his X-Antibody form alongside Guardromon and Rapidmon, descending towards the battlefield. The crimson and white armored knight tipped Sakuyamon a salute.

"You're late," Sakuyamon said in an accusatory tone. Gallantmon gave an embarrassed chuckle.

"Sorry," he said, rubbing the back of his helm. "Had to find Guilmon."

"Give the guy a break, Rika!" exclaimed Rapidmon as they all landed. _"All_ heroes have to wait for the last minute before making their entrance! That's the whole point of dramatic timing!"

"That's the problem with you digimon with super fast speeds," sighed Sakuyamon, rolling her eyes beneath her facemask. "Suddenly you think you have enough time to do _everything."_

Gallantmon coughed politely. "Uh…guys? Machinedramon over there…"

The ground shook as the massive Mega righted itself, growling menacingly at the group of digimon. Crusadermon lighted down in front of it, tilting her head to one side as she took stock of its condition. Looking down at his chest where the attack had struck, Crusadermon nodded in both satisfaction and approval to see a large, gaping hole filled with molten metal dripping out of it, revealing an exposed sphere of pulsating blue energy.

_"Very_ effective," Crusadermon breathed, raising her sash blades. "Its core is exposed. We can end this qui—."

Crusadermon paused as she noticed something unusual about the digi-core.

_That's odd… Normally a digimon's digi-core is colored blue. This one is…gray for some reason. I'm not seeing any activity in it either. No energy circulation. No…nothing. But how? It can't move otherwise. Even Death-X digimon have _something_ even if they lack digi-cores. They have to devour other digimon to maintain themselves. What's going on here?_

Crusadermon was interrupted from her thoughts as Machinedramon began to storm forwards. Its right claws snapped open and red fire spilled out. Cursing for letting herself be distracted, Crusadermon leapt forward, stabbing outwards with her sash blades. They skewered the unmoving digi-core, shattering it into broken shards of sparkling data.

Under normal circumstances, the battle should have ended right there and then, but it did not. Instead, the Machinedramon pushed forward, swatting Crusadermon to the side with its left claw, stunning the Mega from the force of the blow. She barely had enough time to hear the words _Shield of the Just_ before a massive explosion filled her vision, blinding her. The pink armored Royal Knight tumbled through the air for a moment, fighting to right herself and regain her flight, but the blow had disrupted her concentration. She was going to hit—

Crusadermon grunted as her fall was abruptly halted by a pair of metallic arms. Blinking, she looked up to find herself being carried bridal style by Gallantmon, who was looking at her with golden eyes filled with concern.

"Are you all right?" he asked in Guilmon's voice. Feeling suddenly uncomfortable, Crusadermon squirmed and broke free from the other Mega's grasp.

"I-I'm fine! I just…stunned. I'll be all right."

Crusadermon quickly looked around her. Everyone was watching her with some measure of amusement painted on their face—even_ Sakuyamon_! Crusadermon flexed her fingers carefully as she felt an intense heat build up inside of her armor.

_Wha…What is this? I've felt this before but…what…_is_ it?_

Crusadermon had the sickening feeling that she knew the answer to that question.

"Well all right," acknowledged Gallantmon, looking over at the shrouded Hypnos building. "Can anyone tell me what's going on over there?"

"Haven't had the chance to check it out, Takato," replied Sakuyamon as she moved over to his side. "We've been a little busy cleaning up around here. But…" Rika made a few gestures with her hands and closed her eyes beneath her helm. An aura of light surrounded her body and stabbed outwards into the fog. Immediately she stiffened up and the light winked out of existence.

"Guys," she said, her tone completely serious. "We've _got_ to get in there! Something is going o—!"

A powerful roar split across the air as a new form ripped free from the digital field. It was long and serpentine with a thick, flowing main and shining armor of silver and gold. Blood red eyes stared downwards towards them as a cannon attached to the beast's nose began to glow with a dangerous silver-blue light.

"A _MetalSeadramon?"_ exclaimed Kazu, his jaw dropping. "Oh, _man!_ I always wanted that card when I was a kid!"

"Not now, Kazu!" exclaimed Guardromon, grabbing the boy and firing up his jet engines. Looking up he realized with growing dread that he wasn't going to be fast enough to get them out of this one. _This isn't good…_

**"River of Power!" **MetalSeadramon shouted, firing a beam of raw energy down at the Tamers.

_"Sakuyamon!"_ shouted Gallantmon, reaching out towards her with one hand instinctively. Nodding, Sakuyamon quickly grabbed it, slashing her wand through the air as she did so. Her hair, tied to appear as two foxtails lifted upwards as white fire began to race along their edges. Gallantmon's armor began to take on a blinding, red glow as power swirled into the blue gem of his shield. The two tightened their hands around each other as Sakuyamon quickly mouthed incantations. Power flowed between them and Gallantmon's light began to spill outwards.

_"Divine Shield!"_ shouted Sakuyamon, and the crimson light suddenly solidified above the group. MetalSeadramon's attack struck it, straining against it, but the barrier did not so much as give beneath its intense pressure. Seeing this, MetalSeadramon poured more power into the attack and the barrier wavered.

_"Takato…"_

Gallantmon staggered, feeling the power behind MetalSeadramon's attack. He could sense Rika and Renamon's resolve as they poured everything they had into their defense. Tightening his grip once more on Sakuyamon's, Gallantmon stood firm. Power swirled around his armor in shifts of gold and red and his eyes lit up with energy.

_"Power…we need more…_power!_ Grani…!"_

_ "Would you like to fly, Gallantmon?"_ whispered a memory in the back of his mind.

Gasping, metallic, razor sharped wings burst free from his back and extended outwards while his armor, in a blast of heat, took on dragon-like curves and sharp points.

"**Final Justice!"** Gallantmon shouted, feeling the ever-increasing torrents of power flow through him. A double-bladed spear materialized in Gallantmon's hand and a lance-like blast of energy rocketed out, piercing the barrier and stabbing MetalSeadramon through his mouth, cutting off his attack. Explosions ravaged the Mega's body, and with one final scream, he disintegrated into shards of data.

Silence fell across the battlefield as the digital field surrounding Hypnos dissipated, revealing the building once more. With a deep, relaxing breath, Gallantmon flexed his wings and began to glow once more, separating into Takato and Guilmon, their power spent from the exertion of their final attack.

"Man…" Takato panted, looking over at Guilmon with an exhausted smile on his face. "That…was quite the scream…huh, boy?"

"Ah…hah…" agreed Guilmon, nodding.

With a smile on her face, Sakuyamon ruffled the boy's hair and looked over at Dracmon, who was presently unfolding his arms from around his head. The Rookie Demon looked at her and although no words were exchanged, he immediately understood the meaning behind her gaze.

_Jeez… That kid's a monster sometimes,_ he thought, gulping audibly.

**…**

The vision of Shinjuku swept into view as Prometheus materialized on the rooftop of Hypnos. Taking in a breath of fresh air, he glanced around.

"Oh. The Tamers defeated the last of my guardians. That's…inconvenient. Oh well. I'm almost done here anyways."

"Indeed you are," spoke up a voice from behind him. Turning, Prometheus saw the shadow creatures phasing out of shadows cast by the helicopter sitting on landing pad.

"You got here pretty fast," commented Prometheus, jerking a thumb in the direction of the sun. "All things considered, you're not made for the land of the living or anything that has light. You guys must really want this flame, huh?" Prometheus tapped his breastbone where he had inserted the fire, smiling at the creatures.

"Don't play games with us," growled the lead one. "This game is over."

"'Fraid it is," chided Prometheus. "Unless you want to burn that is. The sun's not your thing as I recall. Can't say that I blame you really. Solar flares and everything…ouch." Prometheus winced. "And the terrible sunburn on top of it… Cancer rates going up…yeesh. I'd praise the Vitamin-D, but that's no good for you guys either. Or for me for that matter…"

"Shut it! No more games. No more talking. You _will_ hand over the Flame. It is the key to _all _the worlds…to the _Core System _and the higher echelons of reality_._ We will not be denied…"

"What? This flame?" Prometheus raised one hand and immediately a small blue ball of fire materialized in his palm. "Or this one?" Prometheus smirked as he repeated the gesture. "You really aren't in any position to demand anything from me," he continued, beginning to juggle the balls of flames, adding another two more as he did so. "You have a choice. You can either come out into the light and take the Flame from me—which is unlikely since your power is greatly reduced on this side of that shadow you're in and _I_ on the other hand…am not—or you can crawl back home and wait for another opportunity. A _better _one that won't have your boss wondering why you're out past your curfew. How is that worshipping of Dragomon going by the way? Working out for you? I hear stories about his whatchamacallems—Juzu _prayer _beads? He always carries those around after he takes a life, right?"

Prometheus grinned as he added still another ball of fire. The eyes of the shadow creatures gleamed in the shadows, but they made no move to leave. Frowning, Prometheus tossed a ball of fire towards them and it immediately ignited, casting harsh light upon them. The fire died down rapidly, but Prometheus made his point and the creatures began to sink back down into the shadow of the helicopter.

"Very well…whatever you are. But be warned that you have made an enemy this day. Watch yourself carefully. Watch the _waters."_

"I already do," mused Prometheus under his breath as he dismissed his balls of fire. After the last of the creatures disappeared he let out a sigh of relief. "I've really had all I can stand from the Dark Ocean. Omnimon-X…you really mucked things up when you 'reset' the digital world you know. Not very cool."

Glancing up at the antennae's on the rooftop, Prometheus wandered over to them and placed his hands against their support structure.

"This won't be good for the digital world," he said, a blue glow flowing from him and into the dishes, "but I can't allow any more infiltration into Hypnos. I've got enough problems as it is—never mind the ones that _aren't_ here yet."

Prometheus released his hand and disappeared from view before materializing on a rooftop removed from Hypnos. Smoke curled from a hole where one of Machinedramon's blasts had struck but the building remained miraculously structurally sound. Leaning against a nearby wall, he peered out towards Hypnos, seeing lights coming back on one by one. A forced smile curved up on his face upon seeing them.

"I can only hope that things don't get too hard on the digital world." His smile disappeared. "I'll have to work even harder to speed things up. But first, finish up with Suzie and Atsuo. And then…"

Prometheus' eyes narrowed as he glanced towards the battlefield, his gaze lingering on the Tamers as they rushed towards Hypnos.

_…And then…

* * *

_

A/N: My apologies if the three Dark Masters that appeared seemed defeated so easily. Why this happened is hinted a little bit by Crusadermon, and will become a bit more apparent in Marcus' part in the story (and other attacks by digimon bearing similar problems). As they didn't serve much of a role in this story beyond stalling the Tamers (who are now pretty damn powerful in their own right), it didn't make much sense to keep them around for very long. I enjoyed writing them in as a cameo though. As for Piedmon…well, the reason why I didn't include him was because last I saw him he was being trapped in MagnaAngemon's Gate of Destiny. Don't know if that actually deletes or just traps digimon it captures, but from what I've read in previous works, the general consensus is that it just serves as a trap from which there is no escape, and I've kept that in mind in the event I want to make use of it as such. Pretty badass if you ask me, and probably a very long, very boring jail term even with all the Vilemon that were trapped in there as well (unless they got their own separate 'cell').

On another note, one thing that I forgot to mention in my previous author note was that I finally figured out what Sakuyamon's Kabuki Mode's wand is called. Up until now, all I had to go on was the description of it as a 'mop'. The image, at first glance does look like a mop, but having studied a little bit of Japanese culture, it resembled something I'd seen used in Shinto practices (weirdly enough, Wikipedia's own remark on the device is that it can be confused with a feather duster, which does look similar apparently). It's called an _Onusa,_ which is a wooden wand with zigzagging streamers of paper called _Shide_, which are pretty common in Shinto rituals. Usually it's waved at a slow, rhythmic pace that makes the Shide rustle, and is usually used for blessings and purification rituals on people and property. It's cool stuff and it was fun learning about while writing the previous chapter.

The plot continues apace, slow, but it's moving forward. What happens next we shall see next chapter. :P

'Till then.

-Crazyeight

* * *

10


	37. Source of Wrath

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.

Revival

Chapter: 37/ Source of Wrath

Norn stepped down onto the gray, sandy beach of the Dark Area and took a look around. Her eyes narrowed slightly in distaste.

"Well, well, well…" spoke a dark voice from behind her, laughter tinting it. "Of all the beings that come here, I never expected the digital world's _god_ to be among the damned."

Norn turned towards the source of the voice, but found no one but the beach around her. Norn sighed and shook her head.

"You have changed much," continued the voice, this time from off in the direction of the water. "But no matter what appearance or name you take, I know you. But I am curious about one thing. Why do you take the form of a human now? Is that why Anubismon sent you here?"

"The Judge of the Dead has nothing to do with this," replied Norn, not looking amused. "I came here of my own free will."

"No one comes here of their free will," said the voice, its laughter disappearing. "Not even me."

Norn felt a flash of power behind her and she turned just in time to see a cloaked figure with frightening demonic horns arching from a crimson hood with an upside down star symbol emblazoned on its surface. A red robe clothed its body, and a pair of demonic wings extended outwards. Despite the beings appearance, Norn could sense a dark majesty and cruel wisdom about him. _Even fallen, he has not become prey to lesser beings of this world._

"Daemon," greeted Norn. The demon's eyes narrowed.

"Why are you here? You do not dabble in darkness."

"I bring you a gift."

Raising one hand, Norn summoned a portal of energy and a youth with dark hair was dumped unceremoniously to the ground. The boy gasped as he struck the sand and lay there, trying to get his bearings. Daemon eyed the child before turning his gaze up to Norn.

"What is this?" he asked. Behind his tone, something slithered, as though there were another entity living inside him, speaking through him. "A joke? You give me a pathetic, weakling human to toy with? You should know that humans are not supposed to be in this world."

"Things have changed, Daemon, as you know. And this gift is more than just a toy for you. It is your key to escaping this world. How long has it been since the Digidestined—the East's Chosen Children—trapped you here? You still have not been able to escape, Daemon."

"And you expect this _human_ to do what I cannot?"

Norn merely looked at Daemon impassively. "You saw it yourself when you invaded the human world of the Eastern Quadrant. You'd do well to not underestimate humans, Demon Lord. It has been your undoing once already."

Daemon became silent, considering her words. "Why?" he asked finally, suspicion plainly apparent in his tone.

"You do not need to know why. It is enough for you to know that you have a way out."

"Do not take me for a fool, Yggdrasil." Orange flames flickered at the tips of Daemon's fingers. "I may have underestimated the Digidestined, but I do not underestimate _you_ no matter _what_ you look like. You have something going on, and you mean to use me as a chess piece."

"Yes," nodded Norn. "I do."

Daemon eyed her for a moment before he glanced down at the fallen human. "You truly are a strange one…" he mused.

"If you are to leave this world," said Norn, raising one hand in front of her and placing her other hand over it, "then you will need to be connected to this human. The two of you will need to be…_biomerged."_ A soft glow enveloped Norn's hands and she removed one to reveal a black and gray colored device. "This is the D-Arc. It is presently used amongst humans in the Southern Quadrant, where this child is from."

"I see." Daemon narrowed his eyes. The Southern Quadrant—a place where only the fittest survived. He remembered that world well. "And I suppose you want me to go there, do you? As a part of your _master plan?"_

"If you desire to leave this place, then yes." Daemon looked as though he were about to scoff at the digital deities words before she continued. "After all, your kingdom's existence will depend on you're going there."

"Oh really?" asked Daemon, amused. "And what, pray tell, is happening that would cause such a thing to occur?"

Norn stared at Daemon for a moment before replying.

"I was bid to tell you this." She paused before continuing. "Proteus."

Daemon's eyes narrowed and his chest rose as he took a deep breath. His clawed hands flexed, pulling into fists before opening.

"You have heard of—?"

"I have," interrupted Daemon. "But only in whispers. The infection is happening in the digital world now I take it?"

"Yes," replied Norn. "The Seal has been damaged. The First, Prometheus has awakened to deal with it. A test is required before he can continue, and then he may proceed. Regardless of the outcome however, the call has been made."

Daemon snorted. "As if I could care about what those beings do. However, I shall do as you desire in this case, and _this_ case only. After all, interesting times are upon us, and I would hate to miss out on it."

"Very well," said Norn, her body beginning to fade from view. "I shall leave the rest to you then."

With that, she disappeared, but the black and gray colored digivice continued to hang in the air. With a distasteful snort Daemon grabbed it and then looked down at the human boy on the ground.

"Shall we begin, boy?" he asked, a dark aura beginning to appear around his body. The boy's body jerked reflexively as he finally became aware of his surroundings. He looked up and immediately began to push himself away from Daemon, fear cutting across his face. Daemon laughed and grabbed the child by the back of his shirt. The boy struggled, kicking at Daemon, but the Demon Lord of Wrath did not so much as react to the blows, and instead continued to chuckle at the child's resistance.

"You have fire in you," he noted with amusement. "Excellent. You are as I am. You have hatred in your heart. Fear. _Anger. _Yggdrasil chose you well. But…not _quite_ enough. We're going to have to change that." Turning, Daemon began to walk towards the dark water that crawled and receded along the beach. His robes darkened as the water touched them. The boy increased the ferocity of his attacks, fear lending him strength even as the skin of his knuckles broke open trying to pound Daemon. Giving a sadistic chuckle, Daemon drove him beneath the waves and held him under. The boy thrashed and clawed at Daemon's robed arm, trying desperately to free himself, but his attacks did nothing.

"Don't fight it," Daemon said. "You'll only make the bonding process…_worse."_

The boy's attacks became increasingly desperate as bubbles began to escape his lips. A cruel smile drew across Daemon's face.

_Yes…_

The boy's arms stiffened and against his will his mouth opened, gasping for air and finding none to be had. Seeing this, Daemon raised the black and gray D-Arc to the sky. A dark light emerged from its screen, enveloping the two and merging them together.

**…**

_Atsuo…_

The name rang through Daemon's mind as he opened his eyes, finding himself within a dark tunnel, illuminated only by ghastly, orange colored lights that made the place appear almost haunted. Daemon snorted, not at all impressed with the place.

_So this is where the seed of his anger was planted,_ mused Daemon. _How…interesting._

Daemon glanced around, finding a small beam of light emerging from the far end of the tunnel—an exit. It wasn't too far off either. Taking a step forward, the Demon Lord began to approach the exit. As he did so, the light brightened and he could begin to make out a wall at the other end. Just above it stood clear blue sky. Daemon paused, considering it.

_This is the child's memory that is the source of his hate?_ he thought. It hardly seemed possible. It was tinted with far too many positive emotions. He could feel them resonating in the tunnels and in the air.

Distantly he could hear the sound of voices and Daemon continued to move towards the tunnel, aching to hear more. He felt that whatever was being said was important.

"…What are you? Chicken?"

"No! I just…"

"Then go down there, Atsuo. You said you'd do it. You can't back out now."

Daemon came to a stop at the edge of the tunnel and looked up. He did not fear being seen, as this was the world of memories and he could not alter whatever happened here, for good or ill. He found a trio of boys, one with light brown hair, another with dark brown hair, and the last with black hair standing above him by a guardrail. A rope was tied to the railing and one boy was holding the other end out towards the one standing in the middle. A boy with dark hair. He almost seemed to shrink within himself as he looked pleadingly at the holder of the rope. Despite the fact that he appeared much younger, Daemon recognized the child right away.

_Such a far cry from the child who attacked me in a desperate bid to get free._

"B-But my Mom was telling me to stay away from places like that until the Tamers found that nasty digimon that's been attacking the city," stuttered Atsuo. "You've heard the news and stuff…"

"Hey, you lost the bet. You can't back out now. Besides, what are the odds that there's going to be a digimon down _there?_ The tunnels are a dump. Everyone knows it. And they're only used in case of flooding anyway. My teacher said so."

"Yeah, but…"

"Just get in there, Atsuo Yamaguchi!" snapped the other boy, this one with the light brown hair. "Are you going to be a promise breaker now? What are you going to do if everyone finds out that you can't keep a promise, huh?" The boy stabbed a finger and looked to the side, laughing. Apparently, he was talking to some other child that Daemon could not yet see. "What do you think? If Atsuo backs out, that means he has to suffer the punishment! He won't be able to come to school anymore if that happens."

The boy next to Atsuo, the one with black hair, regarded him carefully.

"Are you going to wimp out on us? You said you'd do it. If you don't, we won't let you hang out with us anymore."

"All right! All right!" exclaimed Atsuo, trying to placate the other boys before his voice dropped and became a bit more submissive. "…I'll do it…"

The black haired boy dropped the rope down into the pit below and Atsuo carefully climbed over the railing, taking hold of the rope with shaking hands as he did so. He took a deep breath and held it for a moment.

"Hey!" shouted one of the boys, pushing down on Atsuo's head irritably. "Get going! We don't have all day!"

"I'm going! I'm going!" shot back Atsuo, beginning his descent. "Sheesh…"

He moved with a bit more assertion now, his anger cutting out his fear, Daemon surmised. He watched him until he touched down on the ground. Atsuo let go a sigh of relief and released the rope. He stared at the entrance to the tunnel, directly at Daemon, though he couldn't see him.

Movement caught Daemon's eye, and the boy spun around.

"Hey!" he shouted up at the boys above him as they withdrew the rope. "What are you doing?"

"Making sure you don't chicken out," replied the boy with light brown hair, a superior smirk on his face. "Go on. We'll let you back up when you do as you promised."

Fuming, Atsuo turned back towards the tunnel and began to walk towards it. Carefully he stepped into it, and paused.

"There!" he shouted over his shoulder, his voice echoing down the tunnel. "I'm in it! _Now_ can we forget about this?"

"You can't just stop there," said the black haired boy, rolling his eyes. There was a series of affirmatives being made as more boys drew up to the railing.

"Fine…" growled Atsuo, taking a step forward. Darkness fell over him as he left the light and passed through Daemon's form like a ghost. Daemon turned and continued to watch him. The boy moved even deeper into the tunnel, passing into the orange lights that illuminated it. He glanced around, holding his arms close to his body. He swallowed anxiously before continuing.

"There's nothing down here," he muttered to himself. "Jeez…why am I so scared of this place?"

As if to answer his question, one of the lights far ahead of him winked out of existence, and the sound of glass shattering could be heard distinctly upon the air. Atsuo pulled to a halt and blinked.

Daemon chuckled softly as the boy stood there, waiting to see if it had only been a coincidence.

Another light died with the sound of breaking glass, and Atsuo spun, hurling himself towards the exit.

"Let me up!" Atsuo shouted as he cleared the tunnels. Hitting the wall, Atsuo jumped up, desperately trying to get out of the pit. "Let me up!"

"Jeez…what a baby," laughed the light-brown haired boy, holding the rope. "Here you go," he said, lowering the rope, only to snatch it back up at the last moment. "Oop. Too slow!"

"This is _not _funny!" exclaimed Atsuo, pounding his fists against the wall. "Guys! There's something in the—!"

Before he could even finish, the last of the lights in the tunnel cracked and died. A blue clawed hand covered by a black, tattered sheet shot out of the entrance and grabbed Atsuo, pulling him into the darkness. Atsuo gave out one last horrified scream before being abruptly cut off by a cold hand covering his mouth. Daemon's eyes gleamed as he considered the incident carefully.

"So this is where it began," he mused.

**…**

Kuroda blinked as the lights turned back on in the main control room. He looked over at Tally questioningly and the woman looked back at him, equally surprised.

"Um…the power's back on," she said, checking systems. "I'm getting reports from all sectors about the interruptions. Doesn't look like anyone was hurt, although…" Tally scowled. "…For some reason, there are several employees being reported as unconscious. It looks like Yamaki and Shibumi are among them."

"Great." Kuroda brushed his hand over his mouth. "Better have someone give Riley a call. In the meantime…" Kuroda pressed a few buttons and activated a number of screens on the wall surrounding them, providing them with an external view of the building. Kuroda frowned. Wreckage was plainly evident, as were the group of children and digimon standing amongst it, but the mist that had previously covered their cameras was gone.

_Nice to know that those kids had us covered,_ thought Kuroda, adjusting himself in his seat. "All right, Let's initiate emergency protocols. Get all the kids in here and get everyone who needs help down to the emergency ward right away."

"I'll contact all available Monster Makers and have them report up here right away," said Tally.

Kuroda bit the inside of his mouth.

_This is going to go over well with the sponsors,_ he thought. _I can tell that already…_

**…**

Ryo sat in class, carefully jotting down notes when his cell phone vibrated in his pants pocket. Quickly pulling it out, while making sure as to not be noticed, he flipped it open. He had received a text message from Hypnos informing him that his presence was required due to an emergency.

_I wonder what's up,_ he thought, raising his hand. "Mr. Yoshida?"

"Is there something I can help you with, Mr. Akiyama?" asked the teacher, adjusting his glasses as he looked up from the chalkboard.

"Yeah," he said, giving his teacher a slightly embarrassed look. "I just received a message from Hypnos. I've got to get going."

"I…see. Very well." The teacher sighed in exasperation. Ryo couldn't blame him. With his identity as a Tamer a well-known fact, there were numerous occasions where he had to interrupt the class in order to fulfill his duties. Very few teachers appreciated the interruptions and Ryo had the distinct feeling that some of the teachers believed that he was abusing the power his connection with the government gave him. None had given him any hassle over it, especially since he always brought in a note from Hypnos to placate the school about such accusations, but the feeling was there.

Getting out of his seat, Ryo collected his things and dumped them into his bag. A minute later he was heading towards the door, not noticing the look that he was being given by a brown-haired girl sitting by the windows.

**…**

As soon as Ryo was in the hall, he immediately began texting Jeri to apprise her of the situation. Although her status as a Tamer was debatable, due largely in part to the fact that her partner, Leomon, had been killed three years ago, the Tamers still preferred that she be a regular part of the team. Jeri herself, despite expressing doubts about it at first, also agreed with the assessment, and began to alter her approach towards taming, striving to provide support from the sidelines in whatever ways she could. As such, Hypnos offered her some latitude in how she conducted her affairs regarding taming and meetings at Hypnos, but only in so long as she did not become directly involved with frontline battles.

_She would probably like to meet that Itsuya guy,_ thought Ryo as he sent his message, remembering his meeting with the psychiatrist. Jeri had expressed an interest in looking into that field, so it seemed natural that the best place to start would be with the person who was helping them now.

A few moments later, Ryo's cell phone vibrated as he received Jeri's response. The Legendary Tamer's face brightened noticeably as he read her message. She would indeed be coming, and would meet him at the gate as soon as she could. Ryo smiled and closed his phone.

For the briefest of moments, he wondered what exactly he was to her. As far as he knew, they were friends—no, scratch that. They were _definitely_ friends. She had been there for him, listening to him whenever he needed an ear to talk to—often providing encouragement to get him to talk due to his past nature of dealing with his problems on his own. But there were occasions where she would do something that got him thinking…

_No,_ he thought, shaking his head and laughing softly to himself ruefully. _I doubt there's anything like that between us. Rika's probably right about me. I just might be a little full of myself to think that. Besides, there's Takato…right?_

Ryo pushed the thought away. This wasn't the time to be thinking about such things. The two of them had to get to Hypnos as soon as possible. Fortunately, Cyberdramon was always close by so the trip would be relatively quick. As he exited the schools' main entrance, he pulled out his blue digivice and activated the tracking program. As he suspected, Cyberdramon was on the rooftop, standing guard. It wouldn't take him long to notice his Tamer out on the school grounds.

_I wonder what's going on that made Hypnos text me,_ he wondered, pressing the button on his digivice and expanding the D-Arc's tracking range. Although he knew Shinjuku was outside his digivice's effective range, he couldn't help but wonder if there was something that he had missed. Not for the first time did he wonder if he should have persuaded his father to live in Shinjuku. Hypnos had had a hard enough time getting him to leave Kyushu in order to have all the Tamers nearby in the event of an emergency.

_Dad…_ Ryo sighed. The man, even after all this time, _still_ had a hard time accepting that he was a Tamer, and that it was his duty to protect this world from any incursions that threatened it. Were it not for the fact that he himself experienced similar issues with trusting others and leaving his home dimension in the hopes of living a more 'normal' life, he would have thought that they weren't related at all.

_Guess it's true what they say. The apple doesn't fall very far from the tree._

The shadow of Cyberdramon fell over Ryo and a moment later, the beast landed.

"Going somewhere?" growled the cybernetic dragon-warrior. Ryo smiled at his partner.

"In a few minutes. We've got to wait for Jeri before we leave."

Cyberdramon nodded. "Where are we going?"

"Hypnos. I guess Yamaki wants to see us or something. I don't know the details, but a meeting was called. I haven't gotten around to calling any of the others to see what they know, but I guess we'll find out when we get there."

"Ryo! Cyberdramon! Wait for me!" shouted the voice of Jeri as she threw open the doors to the school and began to run towards them. Ryo's smile softened as he saw her while Cyberdramon stood his ground impassively.

"Wouldn't dream of leaving you in this place," joked Ryo as the brown-haired girl approached them. Jeri giggled.

"Oh, you. My Prince Charming."

Ryo found himself blushing lightly at the compliment and turned towards Cyberdramon. "Well, we're all here. My partner may not be a chariot for princesses but he can be as gentle as a puppy when he wants to be."

Cyberdramon growled menacingly at Ryo, but knelt down so that Jeri could easily climb onto his shoulder. Within short order, the two Tamers had composed themselves upon the warrior digimon.

"All right, buddy," said Ryo, clapping his partner's shoulder guard. "Let's go."

With a powerful lunge, Cyberdramon leapt into the air and within seconds, they became a rapidly receding dot in the air.

**…**

From her vantage point in the classroom, Nako Yamamoto watched as the two disappeared from view, her thumb exerting pressure on the pencil in her hand until it snapped in two. The upper-half of the pencil struck her desk with a clatter as she narrowed her eyes to dangerous slits.

_Bitch…

* * *

_

A/N: And now Daemon _himself_ has entered the picture, shedding some light on Atsuo's character in the process. Massive things are approaching as we move to finish out Suzie's Arc.

Small bits on Ryo and Jeri this chapter, though not much I'm sorry to say. These two have been strangely absent for much of the story even though they're supposed to play a rather large role in the overall plot. I plan to rectify that however as their part becomes more central and we move onto Prometheus' core plan.

Sadly, my updating schedule is going to be a bit more hectic now. My work schedule has been shifted around, becoming a bit more unfavorable, so I may not get as much time to work on this story until the school year starts for me. I'll just have to play it by ear and hope for the best.

Until next chapter. :P

-Crazyeight

* * *

7


	38. Afterward

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.

Revival

Chapter: 38/ Afterward

"Mr. Yamaki! Sir! Can you hear me?"

Yamaki cracked open one eye only to close it shut once again as a blinding light peered directly into it. Reflexively raising one hand to ward off the light, Yamaki pushed himself up into a sitting position and glanced around him. Shibumi was leaning against the wall not too far off with two smokey cloud digimon lying next to him, while all around them were a number of Hypnos employees looking them over anxiously. Lying on the ground, surrounded by the largest number of Hypnos agents was Urocyomon, completely unresponsive to their attempts to awaken him.

"Glad to see that you're okay, sir," said the person in front of him, a young man with light brown hair, wearing a white T-Shirt. Yamaki recognized him as belonging to the recently established section of Hypnos connected to various hospitals. They were dedicated to providing first-aid to the Tamers for any potential problem that could not be solved with conventional medicine. Part of their training involved the study of the effects of data on the human body and how to apply it in an emergency situation. For the most part, they were headed by Shibumi or Robert McCoy. It was, in their words, a work in progress.

"What happened?" croaked Yamaki, getting up carefully to his feet. The young man grabbed him by the arm to steady him.

"You don't remember sir?" asked the young man. Yamaki glanced at his nametag._ Nishimura Miyahara._

Yamaki frowned. The last thing that he remembered was seeing something coming from the shadows and…

"Foothold situation," growled Yamaki under his breath. "We lost power and we were infiltrated…"

"Sir?" blinked Nishimura, raising his eyebrows in surprise. Yamaki shook his head.

"I want all areas under lockdown immediately. Do not let anyone in or out without my express permission, is that clear?"

"Uh…yes sir, except…" Nishimura scratched the back of his head anxiously. "Except that I don't have that kind of authority…"

"I do," spoke up a voice from behind the man. Looking over his shoulder, Nishimura backed off upon seeing who it was. Riley came to a halt in front of Yamaki, glancing at Nishimura with a nod. "Go see to Urocyomon," she said, pulling out her cell phone.

"Riley," greeted Yamaki.

"Sir," she replied, dialing a number. A moment later, she raised the phone to her ear and was already speaking to the person on the other end. After several seconds, Yamaki's orders were relayed and she soon ended the call. "Tally's sending out the order now. The Tamers just got inside." She glanced up at Yamaki with a meaningful expression.

"And?"

"They found the receptionist unconscious at her post."

Yamaki nodded.

"How are you feeling, sir?" asked Riley, concern flooding her face. Yamaki sighed and raised a hand to his face, letting himself lower his guard for just a moment.

"Not good," he admitted. "Something—a digimon I think—attacked us and did something to me. I'm not sure what, but it knocked me out."

Riley pressed her lips together and nodded. "We'll have to get you down to the infirmary and get you looked over. Even though I'm sure you don't want to…"

"In this case, I have no choice but to agree with you," said Yamaki, gripping one hand into a fist. "Considering what happened, I don't think we can afford any mishaps. Did you call a meeting with the Tamers?"

"They're already on their way up here to be debriefed. I think we should at least have Kenta's partner have a look at you. His abilities are currently the best we have for cleansing the effects of digimon attacks, Viral infections, and injuries. No offense to Shibumi and Dolphin's bunch, but they still don't know enough about data generation and manipulation to do more than basic first-aid"

_And even then they still rely on more traditional methods,_ added Yamaki in his mind. The man grimaced, still holding one hand to his face. He felt strangely disoriented. Dizzy almost, but at the same time, not quite. He didn't know how to describe it really, except for that, and it left him worried. "All right," he said, "for the time being, you're going to head the meeting with the Tamers, but I want to stay apprised of the situation. I'm going to handle damage control."

Riley nodded, although the way she pressed her lips together told Yamaki that she clearly did not like her orders.

_She'll need to be ready anyway,_ thought Yamaki. He looked over at Urocyomon. The silver-furred Rookie was being loaded into a stretcher as the medical unit prepared to move him out. Yamaki frowned.

"What happened to him?"

"I don't know," said Riley. "And neither do they. He hasn't been responding or showing any signs of waking up. For the time being they're going to move him where he can be kept stable and safe until they've worked out what's wrong."

"Stable and safe?" asked Yamaki, raising an eyebrow. "Is he injured?"

"Like I said, sir, I don't know. But right now, I imagine that they're not taking any chances."

"I see." Reaching into his suit's pocket, Yamaki fumbled to find his sunglasses, only to find them come up empty. _I must have dropped them during the fight,_ he thought before turning his attention to Shibumi. The man was already on his feet, albeit rather shakily, while his two Mokumon were floating around him.

"Shibumi," Yamaki said, heading over to him. The man looked up at him and began to chuckle.

"Seems like quite the mess we've landed in, huh? I suppose you want to know about this." Shibumi raised his D-Arc at Yamaki for emphasis. The blonde-haired head of Hypnos nodded.

"He has a digivice now?" asked Riley in surprise. "It looks different from what the kids have."

Yamaki blinked and took a closer look at the device. Riley was right. It certainly looked different from the Tamers' digivices. The overall shape was the same, arc-like with its curves and sporting the familiar screen with a ring surrounding it, but this time it had more buttons lining its surface. The card-reader was also missing.

"Explain," said Yamaki.

"There's really not much to explain," began Shibumi, handing the device over to Yamaki for him to inspect. "I've been studying the technology behind the digivices for years, ever since the first prototypes were developed during the original digimon program back in college. We were improving upon them when the project was shut down, and after that the Arc model appeared. I managed to fish out one of the original models and I've been working with it in my spare time, trying to understand what helped create the ones that the Tamers have. I've improved upon it since then and I believe I'm getting close to being able to produce a brand new design. I thought it would help to have them handy, especially for our new medical unit since the D-Arc is perfect for interacting with data."

"Makes sense," acknowledged Yamaki. "Janyu did say that the digivices taught data how to behave and that it could organize them on an unprecedented level. But what was it that you did with your Mokumon? I seem to remember that you…merged them together."

"Jogress. Or DNA digivolution," supplied Shibumi. "That was just part of my experiments. I had been working out various programs with my friends when the power went out. I didn't even know it would work when we were attacked, but I'm glad it did."

Yamaki frowned at the Monster Maker. "While I am glad that you had that on you, I would appreciate it if you would inform me of your projects, especially when they are of such importance to the future operation of Hypnos."

Shibumi paused before nodding. "I'll be sure to remember that from here on in. In the meantime, should I assist the medical team with Urocyomon?"

"Do so. I want to know what happened to him while we were disabled."

"Will do." Tipping the two agents a salute, Shibumi turned and followed the medical team as they rounded a corner.

Riley glanced over at Yamaki, an eyebrow raised.

"Sir? Was it really necessary to order him to inform you about all of his projects? You haven't shown much interest in having him keep you updated about that sort of thing, and it's not as though he were keeping it a secret either."

"I know," acknowledged Yamaki, spying his sunglasses lying on the floor. Walking over to them he picked them up and brushed them off. "But the digivices are a technology that we barely understand. Even after all this time studying them, Shibumi doesn't know everything about them, and that could have unintended consequences in the future if something went wrong. I don't like being kept out of the loop of something like that."

Yamaki placed his sunglasses on his face and pulled out his lighter, flicking it open with a sharp click.

"Sir…" began Riley, only to stop when Yamaki looked at her.

"I'll be at the infirmary," he said. "I'll be sure to join you and the Tamers as soon as I can."

"…All right, sir," replied Riley, nodding.

Riley sighed as she watched the man go, wondering what was going through his mind. She didn't have long to contemplate as her cell phone began to ring.

"Yes?" she answered.

_"Riley,"_ came the voice of Tally from the other end. _"Our external cameras have spotted Ryo and his partner approaching."_

"All right. Make sure that they're let in and have them sent to the usual meeting room. I'll be there shortly."

With that, Riley hung up and massaged her forehead. She had the distinct feeling that things were only beginning.

**…**

"What happened here?" asked Jeri, horror painted on her face as Cyberdramon began to descend towards Hypnos. The streets surrounding the building were a shattered ruin, and the remains of cars, both police and civilian, littered them. In some cases, they had become a part of the buildings around Hypnos. Most telling however were the smoking holes ripped through buildings that were further away, as though something had fired right into them.

From his spot on Cyberdramon's right shoulder, Ryo frowned, already afraid that what he was guessing had its reality behind this devastation.

"It looks like there was a battle here," growled Cyberdramon, flexing his claws. Ryo glanced at his partner, hearing the anger behind his voice.

"Easy there, bud," he said, patting Cyberdramon on his armored head. "You can't mix it up every time."

Cyberdramon growled again and sniffed the air. Beneath his armor, his muscles trembled.

"There's something…familiar about this," he growled. "I smell a familiar scent. A familiar _power…"_

Ryo's worry increased. Cyberdramon sounded…excited? He couldn't tell for sure. As they drew closer towards Hypnos, he could start to make out emergency vehicles, firemen, and police officers as they swarmed around the building, closing it off from the public. Ryo looked back over at his partner, feeling the sensation of the Ultimate's muscles trembling beneath their armor.

_He wouldn't fight humans if he got a sudden urge to fight…would he?_

"Cyberdramon?" he asked.

Cyberdramon didn't respond, and instead continued on downwards until they landed. In a fluid motion, the Ultimate-level dragon-warrior removed the two humans and placed them on the ground.

A police officer as he approached them. He glanced worriedly over at Cyberdramon before focusing on Ryo and Jeri. "Excuse me, but this building is currently under lockdown and…whoa!"

Cyberdramon moved forward, ignoring the officer. Instinctively the man's hand went for his gun, but froze as the Ultimate's head swung towards him.

"Do not touch your weapon," the Vaccine warrior growled menacingly. The officer gulped nervously and backed off. He yelped as a hand clapped on his shoulder.

"What's the matter Fujita? Don't you recognize Ryo Akiyama or the fact that this kid's a Tamer? You were briefed on this when you joined the force after all." The second officer approached the two children, nodding respectfully to Cyberdramon as he did so.

"Sorry about that," he said. "He's young. I'm officer Hiroki Hido. I'm in charge here. I was told to keep an eye out for a Tamer and to let him into the building when he showed up." He glanced over at Jeri and raised an eyebrow. "And you are…?"

"Jeri Katou," replied the girl, giving the officer a respectful bow. "I'm also a Tamer."

"All right," Hido nodded. "Anyway, this whole area's being closed off to the public, but if you would just follow me…?"

Ryo nodded and glanced over at Jeri. The girl nodded to him and then, much to his surprise, Jeri's hand slipped into his. Ryo's eyes widened, stunned at the gesture, but the girl's disquieted expression prevented him from saying anything about it.

_Is she upset because of the destruction around us?_ Ryo couldn't be certain, but it made sense that she would want to have some reassurance in the face of the ruin. His expression relaxing, Ryo squeezed her hand, to which she returned with a small smile sent in his direction, and the two prepared to head towards Hypnos.

They didn't get very far.

"Hey!" called out an officer from off to the side. "I can't let you past here!"

"Shut up."

Those words, coming forth from Cyberdramon's mouth in a harsh growl caused Ryo to freeze up and turn towards his partner.

Cyberdramon was sniffing the air, glaring at the humans that were nearby. Hiroki stopped in his tracks and tipped back his hat, surveying the situation.

"Is something the matter?" he asked.

"Well…no sir, but we're trying to conduct our survey of the area and close the place off, and this…digimon is…getting in the way."

"I'll handle this," said Ryo, unclipping his digivice. "Cyberdramon?"

The first inkling that he had that something wasn't quite right was when Cyberdramon ignored him completely.

Sniffing the air again, he moved forward. Energy glowed at the tips of his claws and he snarled.

"Hey, what are you…?" began Ryo, only to stop as the Ultimate slashed his claws through the air, gathering energy between them. With a roar, Cyberdramon unleashed a torrential blast into the street in front of him, causing a powerful explosion to rip through the air. Dust and debris rained down upon them, causing Ryo to pull Jeri close to him and shield her with his body.

"Cyberdramon!" he shouted, trying to make himself heard over the sound of rubble hitting the ground around them. "Stop it!"

But the Ultimate was not listening.

**"Desolation Claw!"** Slashing his claws through the air again, Cyberdramon stormed forward, aiming for the main entrance to Hypnos. Ryo's hand moved reflexively and an energy whip lashed out from its screen, snagging Cyberdramon by the wrist. The Ultimate stopped in his tracks and glared back at Ryo, a menacing snarl emerging from his mouth.

"You…_will_ stop it, Cyberdramon," said Ryo firmly as he stood his ground, his arm straining against the Ultimate's power. Not for the first time was he grateful that the energy whip greatly reduced Cyberdramon's ability to fight him, otherwise he would surmise that if his arm wasn't ripped out of its socket, he would certainly have been thrown towards the doors. His eyes locked with Cyberdramon's and the two tugged against each other.

_Damn it…he's not budging. He really means to fight me this time. Just what is going on?_

At that moment, Jeri's hands reached up and clasped Ryo's digivice. In that moment, Ryo felt a strange strength flow through him from the digivice. Cyberdramon pulled on the energy whip once again, but his strength did not so much as budge the two Tamers from their spot. The Vaccine Ultimate looked over at Jeri, who was staring at him with defiant, amber-colored eyes and a moment later, he dropped his arm.

Ryo blinked as his energy whip disappeared. _He gave up?_

"Do you mind telling me what that was all about?" asked Hiroki.

"Sorry," said Ryo as he lowered his digivice, Jeri releasing her hold as he did so. "My partner can be a little wild sometimes, especially when it involves fighting. He was getting better about controlling himself these past few years. This is the first time in a while he's been like this."

"I…see." Hiroki took in Cyberdramon's more subdued stance—if such a thing could be called 'subdued'. Giving Jeri a reassuring nod, Ryo strode over to Cyberdramon.

"Go up to the roof," he commanded. "I'll come get you in a little bit."

Cyberdramon grunted and spread his wings, preparing to take off. For a brief moment though, he paused and looked at Ryo contemplatively.

_"I_ was here," he said, his voice changing slightly. Ryo blinked and then a guarded look flashed across his face.

_Milleniummon!_

"A _part_ of me was here," the Ultimate continued before laughing lightly. Before Ryo could say anything in response, he crouched down and leapt into the air, soaring towards the Hypnos rooftop. Ryo watched him go, worry filling his heart.

"Hey," came the voice of Jeri from behind him. "Is he okay?"

"Huh?" Ryo turned to look at her, and for a moment, he found himself ready to lie. The moment passed however, and he shook his head. "I don't know. But I can't talk about it right now, not here. C'mon. We'd better get going."

Jeri nodded and once more her hand found its way into his, and together the two headed towards Hypnos.

**…**

"Mmm…" Suzie's eyes fluttered open and she found herself staring up at a white tiled ceiling.

"Oh, good, you're awake now," spoke up a female voice pleasantly from next to her. Turning to the side, Suzie saw a woman dressed in a white-colored uniform that made her think of a nurse, calmly writing something down on a clipboard. The woman smiled at her warmly.

"What happened?" she asked the woman.

"Mr. Takahashi brought you here. He said that you collapsed while venturing around the hallway during the power outage." Setting aside the clipboard the woman moved to adjust Suzie's blankets. For the first time, the young girl noticed that she was lying on a bed. Suzie scowled.

"I don't…remember ever…going into the hall…" Suzie said, her voice falling into a whisper. Her frown deepened. Something felt…off. She could remember the power going off while she was talking to Itsuya, but after that her memory just dropped off, as though the power outage had gone through her mind as well. It was as if…

**…**

_ "…Could you please listen to me? I'm telling you that we should just…"_

_ Suzie looked up to see a dark haired man standing in front of her, one hand held out and touching her forehead. The world grew dark and heavy just then and the floor suddenly seemed so very comfortable looking…_

**…**

…Something had made her forget. Suzie shook her head mentally. That didn't make much sense. Perhaps she was just tired.

_Tired enough to fall asleep while in the middle of a session at the same time that the power goes out?_ a part of her wondered sarcastically, but she soon brushed it aside when she felt a familiar pressure brushing up against her side. Suzie smiled upon seeing Lopmon snuggled up against her.

"Lopmon…" Suzie cooed, picking the rabbit digimon up into her arms and pulling her close. Whatever worries she might have had, they were as nothing as long as her partner was all right. Lopmon squirmed a little in her grasp and woke up.

"Suzie. You're all right."

"Of course I am, silly," laughed the young girl, scratching the digimon behind her ear. "As long as I have you with me, I'll be all right."

**…**

Noriko finished taking a sip of water from a drinking fountain and looked out a nearby window worriedly. Next to her, Henry watched her with concern, not saying anything. There was very little that he could say that he hadn't already, though he wished that there was more he could say, or at the very least _do_ to help relieve her of her concerns. As things stood however, there was nothing he could do.

Too bad for him, Terriermon, as always, held a differing opinion.

"I'm sure he's on his way," the long-eared digimon pronounced, though to his credit, with far more tact than was normally warranted considering his mischievous nature. "He probably got a little bit lost. You said that your mother was going to send him grocery shopping, right? I mean, a part of him came from Takato, and that guy can get lost in an empty room after all…"

_So much for the tact,_ thought Henry dourly with sigh. "Terriermon…"

"Sorry, Henry." Terriermon's expression became downcast, but he wasn't willing to accept defeat. "Momentai, Noriko. Momentai."

The dark haired girl forced a smile on her face and looked at the duo. "I'm all right, really."

Terriermon looked down at Henry with an uneasy expression. "Henryyy…can't you do something? Tell a joke even if it's bad? Kiss her even? Hold her hand?"

"Huh? Kiss?" Henry blinked, befuddled. This was not how he thought the conversation should go.

_Then again, this is Terriermon we're talking about…_

"Ugh. You're impossible."

Henry glanced at Noriko, honestly embarrassed at his partner's antics. The digimon just did not give up, even when it was inappropriate to go into that sort of thing. Not for the first time did Henry wish that his partner did not have to be so blunt about the things on his mind.

"Sorry about that," Henry sighed, exasperated. Noriko kept smiling, this time a bit more naturally and she took a step closer to the boy.

"No, _I'm_ sorry. I've been kind of gloomy, huh? I mean, it's probably like you said; we already know that our digivices detected the bio-emergence. Neither did any of the digimon, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised that Lumemon didn't pick it up either. But…" Noriko's red-colored eyes softened as she hugged her arms around her. "…I guess I would have thought that with the way the fighting was going he would have noticed something and come to investigate. Maybe I shouldn't have put so many rules on him about him flying about and letting everyone know he's a digimon…"

"I still don't see why you thought it was a good idea," muttered Terriermon. "He's pretty capable of defending himself, even if he trips over himself about half as much as Takato does."

"I'm sure he'll turn up," said Henry, trying once more to comfort the girl. "And if not, he's probably at home right now, watching TV."

"How's that work? Don't angels have rules against sinning and stuff like that?"

Noriko giggled. "Watching television isn't a sin, Terriermon."

"But it saps your soul, doesn't it? I watch that thing all the time and I _know_ I feel something coming out of me…"

"That's your attention span," joked Henry, tapping his partner on the head. "Not to mention your brains."

"Mom always said that television would do that," laughed Noriko, feeling a little bit better now. "Besides, we all know you're a lost case anyway."

"Wha—?" Terriermon stood up indignantly. "Hey! I'll have you know that I'm the picture of saint hood! I saved the world from the D-Reaper! You can't tell me that doesn't get me something fancy!"

"It got you some manjuu muffins from Mom when you came back," replied Henry in an amused tone. Terriermon flapped his ears out as he scrunched his face in deep thought.

"That's true. Your mom's muffins are pretty good."

"I'll have to ask your mom to teach me how to make those," murmured Noriko under her breath, catching Terriermon and Henry's attention. The two looked at her with raised eyebrows, causing Noriko to blush sharply. "F-For Terriermon!" She blurted out, shifting from one foot to the other nervously. "I-I mean…"

"Jeez." Terriermon rolled his eyes and hopped over to Noriko's shoulder, climbing up onto her head. "You two… You guys went on one date, and you're _still_ acting like this? What's with you two? Where's the smooches? The hand-holding? The cuddling?"

"The _tact?"_ asked Henry as he snatched his partner off Noriko's head by the ears and deposited him back on his shoulder. "This really isn't the time for that."

There followed a brief silence before Noriko spoke.

"He does have a point though…"

_"Thank_ _you!"_ exclaimed Terriermon. Tapping his partner on the head again, Henry smiled.

"He sometimes has his moments."

_"Sometimes?"_ demanded the Rookie, but he went ignored by the two humans.

"Henry. Do you…do you think that…?" Noriko trailed off and hugged herself more tightly.

"What's up?"

"I was just wondering…would I make a good girlfriend?"

Henry's mouth parted slightly. He wasn't sure how to answer that. Nervously, he reached up and scratched the back of his head. Being in a relationship…there had been times where he had toyed with the idea, wanted it surely, but he always found himself becoming busy. Becoming too involved with something about school or being a Tamer to really focus on what would have normally come naturally without the additional chaos in his life.

"I don't know if I could make a good boyfriend," replied Henry with a false laugh. Noriko raised an eyebrow at him. "I'm just…never around," Henry clarified. "Usually you're the one who has to pull me away from my work and remind me to just enjoy myself. Well…you and Terriermon anyway."

"We're all pretty busy these days," said Noriko, stepping closer to him. "But for what it's worth, when we had our date…you were…um…" Noriko licked her lips as she thought of a way to put Henry's worries at ease. "…_pretty good."_

Terriermon's ears perked up at that. "Okay, I heard the emphasis there. What does _that_ mean? Henry! What were you two doing while I wasn't around?"

"You stalked us," Henry reminded, not amused.

"Stalk, stay at a discreet distance…same difference. I didn't see _everything_ you guys did. Come on. Spill the beans you two!"

Noriko hung her head, hiding the blush that was blooming on her face. All the while though, her shoulders were shaking from the effort of keeping herself from laughing out loud.

Sometimes, messing with Terriermon was enough to make anyone forget about their troubles, if only for a little while.

Still, she couldn't help but keep wondering where Lumemon was.

**…**

Wings twitched as Lumemon's eyes slowly opened. Looking around him revealed a place that struck his memory…_tickled_ it. Darkness…claustrophobic darkness. He felt as though he were supposed to be curled up in a ball, sleeping. Or…waiting for the day to awaken.

"My Royal Knights…" his voice whispered in a cold, harsh tone.

"My, my," laughed a familiar voice in amusement. "Listen to the fallen angel. He calls us _his."_

As light surrounded him, illuminating the darkness, a yellow ribbon tickled Lumemon's chin. He followed it to its owner and found RhodoKnightmon, who stood proudly next to him.

"How do you do, oh former Overlord of the Celestial Kingdom?" the knight asked, one hand resting comfortably on her hip while the other pointed at Lumemon in a _come-on_ gesture. "Enjoying your new home?"

Lumemon groaned as he tried to move, only to find that he was unable to do so. His arms were spread outwards and held in place by rings of energy wrapped around his wrists. His legs were tied together at the ankles, leaving him completely immobile.

"I don't appreciate the symbolism," the angel grumbled. RhodoKnightmon tilted her head to one side, obviously disappointed.

"A shame. I thought you would enjoy it, considering your nature. Oh well. Not that it matters. You're awake now, and that's all that matters."

"What do you mean?" asked Lumemon, narrowing his eyes.

"This," spoke up a new voice. Turning his attention towards its owner, Lumemon saw a young girl in a gothic style dress approach him. A girl that he distinctly remembered seeing before.

"You…" Lumemon tilted his head to one side. "Um…who are you?"

"It's no surprise that you don't recognize me," said the girl coming to a stop in front of him. "You have very little memory of your old life. I looked different then too, but were you still as you once were—Lucemon—you would have had no difficulty recognizing me. I was once known as Yggdrasil, but now I am known as Norn."

"I'm not sure if I should say it's a pleasure to meet you or not," replied Lumemon. He glanced down at the girl's hands. In them was contained a small sphere covered by a black, lacey cloth. "And I have a bad feeling about this whole scene."

"As you should," nodded Norn, taking the cloth off the sphere. "Because we have need of you."

Lumemon's eyes widened in horror as they fell upon the revealed sphere. It was red in its color, and it glowed ominously. A symbol consisting of three triangles pointing out from a forth, central one stood out prominently on its glassy surface. Lumemon recognized it for what it was. No matter how many lives he lived, no matter how much his memory would change or be lost, he would recognize this sphere for what it was, as all digimon did. Something powerful. Something dangerous that could be used to save or destroy, but in all cases, it was a force to be reckoned with.

"The Digital Hazard." His breath drew in sharply and he stiffened.

"I am sorry," Norn apologized before slamming the sphere into Lumemon's chest. Lumemon threw his head back and let loose a howl from the depths of his very being as crimson light burned from his eyes.

* * *

* * *

A/N: And the plot continues apace, with a few more developments. Other than that, not too much to say. 'Till next time. :)

-Crazyeight

* * *

10


	39. Around the Table

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.

Revival

Chapter: 39/ Around the Table

Riley drew in an anxious breath as she came to a halt in front of the door to the meeting room.

_Easy there Riley,_ she thought, berating herself for feeling nervous about the task at hand. _It's not as if this is the first time you've been in a meeting with the Tamers. It's not even the first time you've led a meeting either for that matter, and Mr. Wong will be there along with Curley for support while Daisy and Dolphin will be running tests on the Hypnos systems, so it's not like I'm completely alone in this…_

Riley rubbed her stomach uncomfortably, trying to calm her butterflies so that she could think properly.

_I guess I'm just too upset by whatever it is Yamaki's keeping me out of the loop about. All these years and he's never withheld something from me. Why does he keep giving me all these assignments?_

Riley had a sneaking suspicion about what Yamaki was up to, but for the time being she pushed the issue aside. She had a job to do, and she meant to get it done.

Taking another deep breath, Riley opened the door and entered the meeting room. She nodded to each of the Tamers and digimon that were small enough to be present with their partners.

_Impmon's here too I see,_ she noted. She also took note of the fact that while the diminutive, demonic digimon was present, his partners were not. Of course, that was a result of general policy. No one at Hypnos, certainly none of the Tamers, and _especially_ Impmon, desired to put the young children at risk at their age. They were barely older than Suzie when she first became a Tamer. Even though all the Tamers at all ages adapted magnificently and accepted their responsibilities with a maturity beyond their years, no one felt that Ai and Mako were yet ready to experience the field of battle just yet.

Even Suzie, despite her absence due to being in the Infirmary, agreed on this much.

"Sorry to keep you all waiting," she said, nodding to each Tamer and Monster Maker in turn and ending with Ryo and Jeri from their place closest to the door. "I'm afraid Yamaki is likely to be joining us late as he was caught up in an internal attack and is being looked over…"

"Whoa, hold on," interrupted Terriermon, his ears rising into the air. "There really was an attack _inside_ of Hypnos? Here I thought that chick at the receptionist desk was just sleeping on us."

"Terriermon," sighed Henry, shaking his head. "I thought we had already established that when we entered Hypnos…"

"Eh. I wasn't really paying attention to anything you said. Usually it involves scolding me anyway."

"Ngh…Terriermon…"

"See?"

"If you could be silent for a moment," said Renamon, leaning against a corner a short ways off from Rika, "I would like to know the full details of what's going on."

"Couldn't have said it better myself," snorted Crusadermon, eyeing the rabbit-dog digimon carefully. One of her ribbons snaked into her hand and she began to rub its edge against an armored finger, producing a low, scraping sound.

"You know, the same applies to you too, Crusadermon," said Ayaka, glancing at her partner with an annoyed expression. The Royal Knight withdrew her ribbon without further comment, but she continued to keep an eye on Terriermon.

"Anyway," continued Riley, "we're still putting together the reports on the incident, so I'm afraid information is a little bit scattered right now. There are however definite sightings of unusual creatures in the halls. When Urocyomon discussed the Dark Area with Yamaki, he mentioned entities that were 'shadow-like' in appearance. They appear to resemble the creatures that were described in Kenta's season two DVD collection of the Digimon anime."

Crusadermon stiffened. "The same ones that I encountered in the digital world."

Riley nodded. "It would appear so."

Silence fell over the room as everyone digested this latest bit of information.

"Man," spoke up Takato after several seconds had passed. "Just what _are_ these guys?"

"More to the point," interjected Henry, rubbing his chin thoughtfully, "what do they want?"

"Um…There were all sorts of rumors in forums back when 02 was on that talked about them," said Kenta. "They should still be up since, well, since digimon have become real."

"I would expect so," added Rika with a scowl. "After all, digimon in reality resemble what showed up in the show and card game. Somehow I wouldn't be surprised if _everything_ from the TV show showed up on our doorstep. But that still doesn't tell us anything about what they're after."

"How can you tell what they're after when we haven't talked to them much?" asked Terriermon.

Riley leaned forward. "It's…possible that they were after Urocyomon. He was found unconscious and completely unresponsive. I'm…_we're_ still gathering data on the matter…"

"Urocyomon was considered to be rather important to the village that he came from," supplied Renamon. "However, why this is, only his friend, Kuzuhamon knows."

Riley leaned back in her chair, tapping one finger on the table. "Kuzuhamon…that was the Mega that went to America with Alice McCoy, Dolphin's granddaughter, right?"

"Yes."

"I can talk to Robert," said Curley, raising her hand. "See if he can send a message to Alice about this."

"Please do so. Now, I think we should discuss something else. I'm sure you've all noticed that no one was able to detect what happened with their digivices. I take it the same happened with you?" Riley looked over the digimon and each of them nodded in their turn.

"Yeah," said Guilmon. "None of us sensed anything. We heard a lot of noises though and we were starting to think we should check them out until Takato and the others showed up."

Rika pressed her lips together tightly before leaning forward on the table.

"Renamon and I…sensed something."

All eyes were on the two now.

"Could you elaborate?" prompted Riley.

"I sensed something. Nothing specific, but I felt like there was something going on at Hypnos, so I left school to check it out. Renamon sensed it too."

"It's true," added Takato. "I felt it through our link, but…"

_"But _I told him to hang back and that I'd let him know if I found anything serious."

"Interesting…"

"I'll say it is," said Janyu from his end of the table. He glanced over at Curley. "Are You thinking what I'm thinking?"

"What do you mean?" asked Rika, raising an eyebrow. From next to Janyu, Curley adjusted her glasses.

"It's something that Shibumi suggested a number of months ago during a discussion about your biomerging with your partners. He theorized that, given enough time, the effect of merging with a digimon and going to the digital world would begin to alter you in some manner."

"Well, I can do that now," said Takato. "I, ah, can heal faster than normal." He looked over at Riley who looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "Sorry I didn't tell you about that yet. I recovered from my injuries the day after I got them."

Riley shook herself from the surprise of this new information.

"We'll…leave that aside for now," she stated. "But I want you—you _and_ Rika— to see one of the Monster Makers after this. In fact, I would like _all_ of you to schedule a meeting with one of them to be checked over. This may not be an isolated incident, and without any idea what the possible results could be from this, I want to make sure that there's potentially harmful about it."

"How bad can it be?" asked Terriermon sarcastically. "What's Takato going to do? Heal himself to death?"

"Terriermon…" came the predictable response from Henry. The boy sighed in exasperation. "It's just a precaution, and to be frank, we should be cautious. Digimon evolved to have a malleable form, but humans didn't. We were all organic before we became Tamers, and it took Dobermon's sacrifice to allow some of us to biomerge in the real world."

"So? Nothing bad has happened so far, right?"

"That doesn't mean it will always be that way," observed Renamon. "Where the safety of our partners is concerned, we shouldn't overlook anything because it gives us something convenient."

Terriermon shrugged. "I'll go with you on that, but I think it's kind of silly. Heck, in Henry's case it might even be an improvement, but whatever. I like my plain old, boring Henry."

"Gee, thanks…"

"Don't mention it."  
"Anyway," Riley said, clearing her throat. "Due to the nature of the recent bio-emergences being undetectable, and the potential threat that this 'Dark Area' represents, I would like for you to begin organizing regular patrols, working in shifts and in groups. Keep the groups small so that not too many of you are exhausting yourselves. At least one Mega or experienced Tamer per team. For the time being, I think you should work out who your partners are, as you know each other's strengths and weaknesses best, but I'll need to confer with Yamaki and we'll set up something a little more flexible the future. Are all of you okay with that?"

There was a nod of affirmation from everyone gathered at the table, and with that Riley adjourned the meeting.

_That went well,_ she thought to herself as everyone cleared out of the room. She waited until the door clicked shut before reaching up and massaging her head.

Although she had known it for quite some time, she could see how Yamaki's smoking habit developed. Frankly, she was amazed that he hardly ever smoked. True, he briefly relapsed into the habit during the D-Reaper crisis, but after that, he returned to normal. How the man resisted the cravings was beyond her.

_I could never go cold turkey on the creampuffs,_ she thought with some amusement. _If I ever end up in the boss' seat, I'll probably end up eating twice my weight in them. I'd ruin my figure._

Riley's hand tapped the counter with her fingernails before she stood up and headed for the door. She paused, glancing over her shoulder to look at the table with all of its now empty chairs. Although there was no one there but her, she couldn't help but get a strange sense of foreboding seeing them that way. For the briefest of moments, she had an idea what it meant to be at the top.

With a heavy sigh, she exited the room.

**…**

"All right," said Janyu as he finished attaching the last of the wires to Takato's exposed chest. "This won't hurt a bit."

"Isn't that what they say when it's _really_ going to hurt?" chided a certain, long-eared digimon with a snicker.

"Terriermon…"

"Sorry," Terriermon chuckled. "But that's what Suzie told me when she had her tonsils removed. I tell ya, that was one whopper I could see coming a mile away." Turning towards Takato, the rabbit-dog digimon beamed. "Momentai! At least if it hurts, you'll be able to heal from it."

"That's reassuring," laughed Takato nervously. "By the way, Henry. Um…why are you in here?"

"Sorry," said the half-Chinese boy. "I just wanted to ask my dad a question and I…sort of followed him in here."

"I'll bet he wouldn't mind if Rika were in here," laughed Terriermon, to which Henry promptly glared at him.

"Anyway," said Henry. "I was curious about what you said about our becoming a bit more data-like from biomerging so often. If you knew about Shibumi's theory, why didn't you tell us before?"

Janyu looked at his son for a moment before turning back towards Takato, adjusting the wires.

"It's not as though I were trying to keep it from you. To be honest, it started as something that Shibumi threw in during while we were running an experiment—nothing major, just something for a bit of fun, like we did when we were all back in college. Call it a thought experiment. From there, we began to wonder just what would happen, and what we could possibly expect if such a thing happened. How long it would be before we noticed something out of the ordinary. We took it seriously enough to modify some of our equipment just in case, but Shibumi didn't think that anything would happen. I don't think any of the others did either."

"Did you?"

Janyu looked at his son and gave him a forced smile before returning to his work.

Takato looked back and forth between the two before laughing a little.

"What's so funny?" asked Henry, raising an eyebrow.

"Hm? Oh…nothing."

"Gimme a break, Takato," snorted Terriermon. "That line doesn't work on anyone and you know it. Spill it already!"

"Well…it's really nothing but I was just thinking about how much alike you, I mean Henry, and Mr. Wong are. You both are worried about everything and…ah…you both prepare for everything. If that makes any sense."

"Surprisingly…you did," replied Terriermon. "But it's kind of silly, don't you think?"

Takato laughed lightly. "Well…that's just how I am."

"How _did_ you get two girls to fall for you?" asked Terriermon, shaking his head in mock confusion. "Sometimes, the things that come out of your mouth are just… Gah!"

"And who was the digimon that asked him what was on his mind?" laughed Henry, tapping his partner on his head.

"Right, right. Open my mouth, insert foot…er…paw."

"Momentai," laughed Takato.

**…**

_Momentai, momentai, momentai, momentai…_ the word pounded through Guilmon's mind like a drumbeat, and he shifted restlessly on the floor. Once, a long time ago, he would have questioned why he couldn't be with Takato while he was being checked over, even though he himself didn't need to go through the same procedure. However, he had changed since those early days, readily acknowledging when his presence wasn't needed. He would bear such periods as necessary, though it would often prove to be quite challenging to do so.

Guilmon glanced over at the solitary Renamon as she leaned against a wall, eyes closed and arms folded over her chest. The portrait of eternal patience.

_I should try being more like her,_ Guilmon thought, only to pause in the thought and shake his head mentally. _Actually…maybe not. The last time I tried that I fell off Takato's roof and nearly squashed his dad. That wasn't very good…_

"Guilmon?"

Looking up at the voice that had spoken to him, Guilmon smiled to find Jeri, kneeling next to him.

"Hi, Jeri!" he chirped happily. "What's up?"

"I just thought you looked a little lonely. I haven't gotten a chance to speak to you in a while, so it seemed like a good time to catch up."

"Okay," said Guilmon, sitting up. "I've been me. Chasing squirrels, playing with kids in the park, eating bread… Oh! I've been getting better with my reading!"

"Oh?" Jeri's eyebrows rose, but more in delight than in surprise. She had known that for the past two years, Takato had been teaching Guilmon how to read hiragana and katagana—the basic alphabet that was taught to Japanese children—so that he could get around town if he, for whatever reason, happened to get lost and couldn't find his way home. Guilmon had surprisingly learned very rapidly to recognize the symbols and grammar structure, much to Takato's embarrassment, who had gotten the hang of the alphabet early on as a student, but had had a harder time with the grammar.

"Uh-huh!" Guilmon nodded his head vigorously. "Takato's bought me some books on kanji and he's been bringing me some newspapers. He even got me a dictionary in case I ever got stuck." Guilmon's ears lilted a little. "I'm having a harder time learning kanji though."

Jeri nodded. Although reading and writing kanji was almost as natural as breathing to her now, when she was much younger it was very much a different story, even when she and the others were first being introduced to it in elementary. Over two-thousand characters were commonly used in the regular areas of life, and even more existed, many of which could be interpreted differently depending on the hiragana or katagana that it was written with.

"I'm sure you'll get it," Jeri smiled. "We all did. It's just something that you have to keep practicing."

"I know," said Guilmon. "But I can't write very well with my claws. Every time I try, I end up scratching Takato's floor, and his mom doesn't like that." Guilmon's ears twitched. "But Takato says I have a good memory, so he's making flashcards for me to learn from."

Jeri smiled. _Someday,_ she thought,_ Takato will make a good dad._

She paused on the thought for a moment, rolling it around in her mind. Takato as a father. Somehow the image just seemed…

"So how are you doing?" asked Guilmon, causing Jeri to blink as she was broken from her thoughts.

"Hm? Oh! I'm doing fine. I've been hanging out with Ryo a lot, so I'm not lonely so much. He helps me with my homework too." She glanced to the side where Ryo was standing, talking with Kazu while Noriko, Kenta and Ayaka stood nearby. "I have the same teacher he did when he was in my grade, so the material is easy for him to understand. He gives me tips."

"Ryo's a nice person, isn't he?"

"He sure is," she said, her expression softening as a smile curved up on her lips. Guilmon tilted his head to one side, watching her curiously. The expression on Jeri's face… He had seen it before, first on Takato back during their first year as Tamers, and then on Rika in their second.

_Takato doesn't always have an easy time talking about love,_ he thought. _He says he doesn't understand it, but it makes people do crazy things sometimes. Takato's dad said something similar…right before Takato's mom hit him with a washcloth. Would she know anything more?_

"Hey, Jeri?" asked Guilmon after a moment of deliberation. "Do you like Ryo?"

"Huh?" Jeri raised an eyebrow at the red dinosaur. "Of course I do."

"Ah…" Guilmon tilted his head to one side again, becoming confused. This was not supposed to be how it happened, at least not from what he'd seen so far. From established couples like Takato or Henry's parents, yes, but for some reason younger humans were always a bit more evasive when it came to discussing the people that they liked, especially when they weren't in a relationship. Yet here Jeri had just come out and admitted it without any sign of embarrassment. What was going on here?

Before he could press the issue any further, the door to the waiting room opened and in walked Rika, a satisfied smile on her face.

"Well, I've got a clean bill of health," she said, heading over to a seat next to Jeri and sitting down. Renamon phased over to her a moment later.

"And nothing was detected?" the vulpine digimon enquired. Rika folded her arms beneath her breasts, her expression immediately becoming serious.

"Well, I wouldn't say that they didn't 'detect anything'. Curley definitely picked up something, but couldn't quite make heads or tails of it. She could only tell me that it wasn't anything bad."

"Maybe it's your connection to Takato?" asked Jeri, beaming. Rika shook her head.

"'Fraid not. That was already accounted for when the scan was started, and they have that on file for comparing. What Curley found was something else." Rika frowned and glanced around. "Speaking of which, where's Takato? He's not back yet?"

"Nope," groaned Guilmon, his ears lilting. "He's been with Henry and his dad for a really long time."

Rika raised an eyebrow. "Henry's with him? What for?"

There was laughter from the other end of the room as Kazu spoke up. "Maybe he just finds whatever ol' Chumley's packing on his chest a lot more interesting than what you've got."

The visor-wearing boy's laughs were immediately cut off as Ayaka dug her fist into his scalp, not in the least bit inconvenienced by the difference in their heights. Kazu squirmed and struggled away from the girl only to end up on the receiving end of Noriko's glare. The boy wilted and held up his hands in a placating gesture.

"I'm just kidding…I'm just kidding…sheesh."

Jeri looked over at Rika with a concerned smile.

"Boys will be boys," she said, trying to soothe her friend. Rika snorted.

"Sometimes I wonder if Kazu even counts as a boy or just a really dumb monkey. Takato takes better care with what comes out of his mouth _and_ his brain. Lately, Kazu seems to have lost all sense of restraint."

Rika unconsciously shifted her arms, ensuring that her breasts weren't as apparent as they were a second ago and settled back down. Jeri could only shake her head mentally.

_Well, that sort of thing won't affect her for long,_ she thought, remembering her friend had the habit of discarding insults the way she discarded unneeded cards. Still, she found it a bit odd that Rika was at all affected by Kazu's words. It hadn't been the first time the boy had made fun of their bodies, or anyone's for that matter. In the past, the results had always involved one of the girls, usually Ayaka, shutting him up.

Puberty had been a strange, bizarre time for all of them, and for Kazu at least, perhaps the most painful.

_Although that one time that had Rika yelling at Takato…_ Jeri thought, smiling with amusement.

"Anyway, how are things going between you and Takato?"

Much to her surprise, Rika didn't blush or fluster over the question. She remained rather composed, though still uncomfortable as evidenced by her pursing her lips together into one thin line.

"Well…he's proposed to me…"

_"What?"_

Jeri's eyes flew wide as the girl nearly started into the air, causing everyone to look them in surprise.

Guilmon raised his head with confusion on his face. "I don't remember that…"

As Rika laughed, Jeri scowled, realizing that she was being played with. With an irritated flush, she settled back down, glaring at her friend.

"Sorry," Rika laughed. "But that was payback for all those times where you kept asking us about 'when we were going to get together'."

"That was mean. And you were just talking about Kazu having no sense of what comes out of his mouth."

"Great. Now I've lowered myself to his level. Oh well…Takato and I kissed."

"Oh." Jeri again felt complete surprise wash over her, her body stiffening up as her friends news went through her mind. "Oh," she repeated. Rika watched her with a little worry on her face. Jeri saw it and immediately drew herself out of her shock.

"Sorry. It's just…after you said that he…I mean…well," Jeri leaned backwards and let out a laugh of her own, causing Rika to frown.

"What?"

"You know," Jeri teased, looking over at her. She wagged a finger at her friend and winked. _"It's about time."_

Rika rolled her eyes. "Oh boy…"

"It took the two of you three years."

"And him babbling like an idiot," Rika sighed. Jeri looked at her softly.

"That's about normal for him, isn't it?"

"Unfortunately, yes. Sometimes, just when I think that he's finally grown up and started acting his age, he freaks out and reverts to the way he was when I first met him. Just a weird little boy who was always stepping on pin-needles because he didn't want to offend anyone." Rika snorted. "Well, I had a hand in him keeping that mentality I suppose."

Rika's expression became wistful then and she unfolded her arms carefully. She was watching the other Tamers, but they no longer seemed to hold any interest in their conversation.

"I feel weird," she admitted.

"About what?"

"Like, what am I supposed to do? Takato…he _wants_ to be with me and I want to be with him. But…how does this sort of thing work out?"

Jeri giggled and pointed ahead of them. "There happen to be _two_ people with Ryo who happen to have the ability to give you some advice."

"Kenta and Ayaka?" Rika snorted. "If I wanted to take advice on dating a d-a guy like Kenta, I'd talk to them."

Jeri giggled again. "Rika. That's _exactly _what you've been calling Takato for _years."_

Rika smiled in self-amusement. "All right. You've got me there. But I still don't think that I need to talk to them about it."

"Why not?" asked Jeri. "They have experience, and they've been together ever since they first hooked up three years ago. I don't know what they're doing, but they're doing it right. Besides," Jeri pointed at herself, "I'm afraid I don't have any firsthand knowledge on how to go about dating either."

Rika grimaced, as though remembering an old pain. "Jeri…"

"Let's not talk about that," said Jeri, silencing her friend with a small smile. "You're a little too old to be going over that again, and it's kept you from what you've wanted for this long already. I've told you once and I've told you a thousand times. Don't hold back because of me. I'm happy for the both of you."

Rika didn't look entirely convinced, but she nodded all the same, knowing that it was pointless to argue with her on this point. The two of them had had enough arguing over it to last them both a lifetime or two.

"Maybe I'll take that advice," Rika mused aloud. "But I think that I can handle Gogglehead without any."

"Good," said Jeri, beaming.

**…**

A short ways off, Miki sat in a chair, reading a book that she had found on one of the tables sitting in the corners of the room. Cautiously she slipped a glance over at Jeri before her gaze slinked back down to the book. She shifted on the seat in an attempt to get comfortable, but it didn't work. Miki snuck another look at Jeri again before looking over at Ryo. She swallowed and bit the inside of her lip.

_She…She didn't mean what she just said, did she?_

Her fingers dug into the book as a pain hung heavily in her heart. She watched Ryo for a moment longer before her eyes dropped back down to the book. She tried to engross herself with the plot, but try as she might, she couldn't find anything interesting about it to keep going. She forced herself to try anyway. Anything to distract her until she could get home. Until she could get away from everyone.

_I…I'm sure she didn't mean it. She probably meant something else…right?_

Miki bit her lip and buried herself in the novel, while next to her, Dracmon eyed her with quant curiosity.

**…**

Prometheus was back at the ramen stand, slurping down noodles. He groaned mentally in delight as the salty noodles slid down his throat and came to rest in his stomach. He knew that he didn't need food of any kind, but he enjoyed the sensation all the same. And the taste. The taste was _especially_ important to him.

With a burp he smiled at the man as he came around with yet another bowl of noodles.

"Here you go sir," said Davis, grinning. "Another pork ramen just for you."

"Thank you," Prometheus smiled with a nod, while Davis' grin widened.

"No sir. Thank _you."_

Prometheus burped in satisfaction as he finished up his first bowl and handed it to the man, who promptly brought it towards the back of his shop.

_Say what you will about this man, but in any reality and at any age, he always makes good food._

Prometheus frowned. It pained him to admit that, in spite of this, inevitably chaos would erupt and there was a good chance that this place would be destroyed.

_My plans call for it,_ he commiserated._ Not with the destruction of this place particularly, but it's likely to get caught in the crossfire. But there's no way around it. I'm doing what must be done, after all. _

Saying a quick thanks he dug his chopsticks into his freshly-cooked ramen and began to pull it into his mouth.

"When tomorrow comes," he murmured to himself, "things are going to be hectic." He glanced over to the side and the world warped. Everything became faded and dark, save for himself and another, wrapped in darkness and smoke.

"Took you long enough, Bakumon," he said to the shadow. "You've been out and about on your own quite a bit, haven't you?"

"…Yeah," replied the digimon, emerging from the shadows. "I like to explore."

"I see." Prometheus swallowed some more noodles before continuing. "Just remember that, no matter what _your_ goals are, you still have the mission I gave to you when I had you pulled over to this world. Don't forget that."

"I…haven't."

"Good. Because I need you to look in on that girl again—young Suzie. It will be important for tomorrow. After that, no matter what happens, I want you to switch targets. I'll give you the details then."

"All right," nodded Bakumon, fading into the background. "See you tomorrow."

"'Night." With that, the world returned to normal and Prometheus swallowed some more noodles, his mind already tracking the possibilities that the next day would bring.

* * *

A/N: So my work schedule shifted around a bit again, and oddly enough, despite giving me more days to work, I ended up with a smaller amount of time out of those days to work in, so I actually have a bit of an afternoon to write in! The results of which is this chapter.

The meeting wasn't as big as I thought it would be, becoming more of an outline of what needs doing and to stay alert for potential problems in the future. Takato's ability to heal was finally brought to everyone's attention, and there was some brief follow up on Rika's relationship with Takato.

One thing that I enjoyed writing was Guilmon's scene with Jeri, as it allowed me to expand on Guilmon's character a bit by revealing that he's learning how to read, and is quite good at it too. One thing that has bothered me a bit in Tamers stories is that Guilmon is sometimes portrayed as being rather, well, not smart and thinks that most subjects he doesn't know is food. Guilmon was shown to be rather smart in the show, albeit incredibly naïve as he had been just born (and born at the stage of Rookie no less, which is the equivalent of putting a 5 year-old in an adult's body). Later on, Guilmon was less naïve, but still learning, and as such could at times say or do things that he really should have thought about a bit more. But again, that's because he's inexperienced. He does learn however, and I wanted to show that here, and bringing Jeri in to talk to him allowed me to touch a little bit on her, hinting only slightly at things between her and Ryo. Not much, but it's a start in the right direction.

Until next time. :)

-Crazyeight

* * *

10


	40. Fire Starting

A/N: This chapter is dedicated to **Pyro the Harbinger of Chaos** for being the 200th reviewer of this story.

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.

Revival

Chapter: 40/ Fire Starting

Dark laughter filled the tunnel as Daemon strode forward, his eyes narrowed. After a few moments, he turned a corner and came to a halt. A loud scream punctured the laughter and the sound of something hitting the ground could be heard. Daemon's eyes took hold of the scene in front of him, passively observing.

"The human screams beautifully," spoke up a creature that appeared to be a black, tattered sheet with large, blue claws. More laughter echoed in the tunnel from the swarm of creatures that resembled the one that spoke, all leering over a fallen, dark-haired boy in their midst. The child sobbed uncontrollably as the ghosts leered over him triumphantly, as though at a prize.

_Interesting,_ thought Daemon. _A BlackBakemon nest…_

The boy, Atsuo, began to crawl forward, his sobs hitching in his throat, only to be stopped as one of the BlackBakemon grabbed him by the back of his neck and hauled him into the air. Atsuo howled and proceeded to struggle, but sharp claws dug into him, causing small droplets of blood to bubble up around their points and causing him to stiffen up and briefly stop. Tears streaming down his face, he glared angrily at one of the BlackBakemon as it approached him, a hungry look on its face.

"Now, now," whispered the ghost. "If you fight us, you'll only make it worse on yourself. We only want to…_have fun."_ The BlackBakemon reached out and roughly pulled up his shirt. It gazed at the boy's abdomen with a smirk before drawing a claw across its surface. Small rivulets began to drip down Atsuo's body as he drew in a breath from the sudden pain. Smiling, the BlackBakemon leaned forward and stuck a tongue out, engulfing the wound and sliding the organ upwards.

"How is it?" asked the BlackBakemon holding Atsuo.

"Rather tasty," laughed the other BlackBakemon, pressing its tongue against Atsuo's injury again. Pulling back, it licked its lips, smearing them red. "Much better than the _sweets_ we've been stealing so far."

Reaching out once more, the BlackBakemon's claw found purchase on Atsuo's skin and tugged ever so slightly, allowing a small droplet of blood to run free. The ghost quickly dabbed at it and lowered it to its mouth, sucking on it with a smile.

"L-Let me…go…" cried Atsuo, his breath hitching in his throat.

"You want to go? But why?" The BlackBakemon laughed in delight. "The fun is only about to begin."

"The Tamers!" gasped Atsuo in desperation. His lungs were heaving in a panic that he was struggling to control. "T-They'll know about you! They'll…they'll find you!"

"Tamers?" The BlackBakemon looked at each other, though a smirk graced their features. "Don't think that they'll be able to help you." One by one they all chuckled. "We've been watching you humans for a while now. You have a term that we can use to dispose of you when we're done. It's called 'runaway'. Do you really think that _they_ will bother looking for some human who ran away?"

"T-They'll find me…" Atsuo whispered, trying to summon his courage. "They'll find me."

"Such confidence," chided one of the BlackBakemon in a corner. "Maybe we ought to finish up our fun with him quickly and get rid of him."

"We have nothing to be afraid of. Let's just enjoy ourselves…"

Atsuo was dropped to the floor, knocking the breath out of him. Cackling, the shade digimon swarmed together and melded into one, forming a single, large version of themselves that towered over the boy. Fangs glinted in the light of the tunnel lamps and claws stretched outwards. Atsuo tried to move away, but his body refused to so much as budge. His eyes were drawn up to the large BlackBakemon's as they looked down upon him, and a small whimper escaped his mouth. Distantly, he felt something hot flood his pants and a sharp stink filled the air.

"No…no…"

"Bon appetite," the BlackBakemon laughed, reaching towards him. Atsuo's eyelids plunged themselves shut, not wanting to see what he knew was coming next…

The tip of the creature's claws paused on the boy's back and then, unexpectedly withdrew. Cracking open one eye, Atsuo looked up at the ghost, finding it glaring down the tunnels, as though sensing something beyond its vision. Looking down at Atsuo, its eyes glowed with red light, and the boy found himself suddenly stiffening up, unable to move.

"Stay here, pet," the dark ghost said. "We'll be back."

With that, the BlackBakemon disappeared from view.

Time passed. How long, Daemon didn't know, but he could only assume that it was quite a while. The child continued to lay there; utterly unable to move no matter how much he wanted to.

As he lay there, air warped in front of him, and a figure shrouded in darkness stepped forth. Its feet came to a halt in front of Atsuo and it inclined its head towards him.

"Guh…" A noise emerged from Atuo's mouth as a tear ran down the length of his face, tracing a trail among the dirt and grime that stained it. "…ugh…"

A series of electrical beeps filled the air as the figure raised one arm over Atsuo's exposed back. Small strands of shadow-covered wires extended themselves from the figure's fingers and came into contact with his shirt. There was a sound of buzzing and then Atsuo jerked, making a choked, pained cry. The smell of something burning filled the air and for a moment, everything was still.

Daemon folded his arms over his chest, waiting for the rest of the memory to play out.

More clicks and beeps came from the shadow creature, and in the next moment, the entity was gone. Daemon frowned.

_What is this?_ he wondered._ Something had just happened. What was it? _

A sharp buzzing filled the air, and Daemon staggered suddenly, overcome by a strange sensation of dizziness. The Demon Lord shook his head, scowling. He felt…_odd,_ for lack of a better word, as though he had just lost something important, or had a word on the tip of his tongue, only to forget it when it was needed.

Deciding that whatever it was no longer required his attention, he returned his focus to the human in front of him. Atsuo was now pushing himself to his feet, stumbling a little as he did so. Daemon nodded. The boy was free from his paralysis and proceeded to follow him. Slowly, but surely, he made his way back down the tunnel, eventually coming to the exit where he had been taken from. Finally entering the fading light of day, he hitched a cry of relief and rubbed his arm across his face, wiping away his tears. He was free. _Free._ The gold colored sky had never before looked so beautiful to him.

_The rope!_ Atsuo began to panic again until he found the rope that had gotten him down hanging there, waiting for him. Grabbing hold of it, Atsuo began to pull himself up, straining from the effort. But the desire for freedom held firm and soon enough he pulled himself over the top and back onto the ground of Shinjuku.

Atsuo lay there, hugging the ground as a flood of emotion suddenly erupted from him. At long last…he was…

A hand roughly jerked him up and hauled him off the ground. Crying out in fear, Atsuo lashed out and struck something _hard._ There was a muffled cry and the next thing the boy knew he was spun around, finding himself staring into the very angry face of a police officer.

"Boy," the officer began in a heavy tone, "I think you need to pay a visit to the station."

**…**

Daemon continued to watch Atsuo as time passed by, from when he was brought down to the police station for entering a restricted area and striking an officer to his parents being called in to inform them of his misdoings. Atsuo's pleas for them to listen to his explanation fell upon deaf ears. Whatever his reasons, they did not matter. Not to his parents, and in the end he was brought home to receive his punishment. The boy trudged up the stairs towards his room, per his father's orders while he and his mother deliberated, his whole body trembling half in anger and half in rage. Still, for the time being, his fear towards his parents proved stronger, and he closed the door to his room quietly so that they would not have another reason to be mad at him. He stood there for a moment, shaking. He sniffed and gagged right away. He stunk of piss, dirt, and sweat.

He immediately began to tear his clothes off, not wanting to be in them for a single moment longer. The shirt fell upon the ground, and while he was struggling with his pants, his eyes fell upon the cut on his stomach.

His legs gave out a second later and he collapsed heavily upon the ground.

_Those digimon were going to eat me,_ he thought, the realization echoing through his mind. He shuddered in horror. _Those digimon were really going to eat me…_

He looked up around his room, his gaze almost vacant. Digimon posters dotted the wall, and here and there, a toy lay scattered on the floor. Lying on his nightstand was a thin pile of cards. He quickly jerked away and clenched his eyes shut. Tremors ran the length of his body and he moved to finish changing himself. He didn't want to look at the digimon, false or not.

Yet, against his desires, his mind went back to the first time he had _seen_ a real-live digimon. At the time, he didn't know it was real. An older kid with yellow goggles had gone around with a giant red dinosaur, and when he saw it…oh! Atsuo's heart stung. All he could think of was just how _cool_ the creature looked. The older kid had claimed that the digimon was just a guy in a costume, but it had looked so real! And when the reports came about digimon attacking the city, he knew then and there that what he had seen was anything but a costume.

And how he wanted a digimon of his own one day…

That day had sealed his fate. He bothered his mother about digimon, and although she had been reserved about it at first, she indulged him. At least until the attacks started and the 'Monster Makers' came out with a report that said 'digimon loved children'—his mother came to the conclusion that her child would be snatched away from her by the creatures and refused to have anything to do with the franchise. But his love for the digital life forms continued to grow strong. He wanted to be a Tamer. He wanted…

There was a knock at his door and Atsuo's mother poked her head in.

"Atsu—ah!" The woman let go a light gasp and pulled out of the door. "Atsuo! Get…get dressed this instant! Your father wants to have a word with you."

"Y-Yes Mom!"

Atsuo scrambled to get fresh clothes on and as soon as he was done he followed his mother downstairs into the kitchen where the man was waiting for him. He was sitting at the kitchen counter, looking sternly at him and indicated with a glance that he take a seat across from him. Atsuo obeyed, feeling as though he were a prisoner awaiting execution.

"Atsuo Yamaguchi," the head of the household began in a firm voice. "Do you know what you did today?"

"Yes sir," the boy mumbled.

"What was that?"

"I said, yes sir!"

"Watch your tone, mister," the older man remarked before leaning back in his chair. "Now…would you like to refresh our memories about what you did?"

Atsuo squirmed in his seat, not wanting to look at his father. However, the older man would have none of it.

"Atsuo. Look at me."

The boy's eyes rose, but fell again. A quick memory about how his father reacted whenever he failed to meet his eyes, and his gaze soon rose once more. Trembling and darting all over the man's face, only occasionally meeting his eyes, but at least he was looking at him. The man nodded, apparently satisfied.

"Tell your mother and I what you did today."

Atsuo gritted his teeth. He knew this was merely a formality, and he knew that it did not matter what happened to him while he had gone on his 'misadventure'. That, as far as the man was concerned, was a consequence of his actions and he deserved it. The admission was just a prelude to the punishment that was sure to follow.

"Atsuo."

"I…I…I disobeyed the law, and I struck an officer." Atsuo gritted his teeth, his face flaming. "I entered an area that I wasn't supposed to."

"What else?" prompted his father softly. Atsuo felt a harsh lump suddenly throb in his throat, wanting escape. Powerful emotions were starting to flood through him, but he held them back. His father had little patience for outbursts and he had to hold on until he was out of his sight.

"I have shamed my family," he replied, his voice choking.

"Yes," his father said with a nod. "You have." There was a creak as the man adjusted himself in his chair. "Here is what is going to happen. You will go straight to bed. Your mother will give you a meal later, but you are to go to bed now and to not come back downstairs until tomorrow morning. You are to not bathe either today or tomorrow. You are going to remember what shame feels like, and you will not do it again. Understand?"

Atsuo gripped the sides of his chair until his knuckles turned white.

"Yes father…"

**…**

A loud ripping sound filled the air as Atsuo tore a digimon poster off his wall and flung it onto the ground. He was filled with complete and utter revulsion. A cry escaped his lips as he tore down another poster and crumpled it into a ball, this time hurling it across the room. It did little to abate his anger and in an attempt to find some measure of release he picked up one of his toys—an Agumon—and threw it with all the strength he could muster. The toy hit the wall and the dinosaur's arm popped off. Atsuo stood there for a moment, breathing heavily as footsteps pounded down the hall and toward his room.

_It's not fair!_ his mind shouted as he opened and closed his hands repeatedly. The anger remained. He did not feel any better, and he _wanted_ to feel better. Anything to remove his anger…

"Atsuo!" cried his mother, flinging the door open. "What are you doi—?"

That was as far as she got before she suddenly spotted a digimon toy flying straight towards her. It struck her in the eye and she cried out more in surprise than in pain, and she staggered backwards. Atsuo stood on the other side of the room, his mouth hanging open in shock.

"Mom! I didn't mean to…!"

"Atsuo…" the woman growled, cutting off his words as she started towards him. A second later, a loud slap filled the air followed by a cry of pain.

**…**

Atsuo collapsed against a tree in the park, giving a heavy sigh. Bad luck just seemed to be dogging his heels. Closing his eyes he hung his head in his arms. He could vaguely smell the bitter tang of urine, but, to him at least, it was barely noticeable. For his classmates however it was a completely different story, and he had heard nothing but comments about it all day. Some of the kids had started calling him Atsu-_Nyou_, mangling his name to be combined with the word for piss.

He hated it.

Atsuo pulled his legs up to his chest and buried his face in them. He hated everything, but most of all he hated himself for everything that had happened. He wanted to disappear, but at the same time, he knew it was impossible. His shame would follow him no matter where he went.

"So where does my little princess want to go today?" came a voice from off to the side. Peering through his arms, Atsuo saw a youthful-looking woman with glasses leading along a young girl in wearing a violet colored shirt that looked to be Chinese. Sitting on her head was a dark-furred creature with long ears and three horns. Atsuo's fingers tightened on his sleeves as the trio walked by.

"I want to go to the playground!" the young girl cried, waving one hand through the air and bouncing on her feet happily. "Playground! Playground! Playgrouuund!"

"Okay," the woman chuckled. "We'll go to the playground, but we can't stay there too long, okay? I still have to make dinner for tonight."

"Can I help?"

"Sure, if you want to."

As Atsuo watched, the long-eared digimon glanced over in his direction, its nose twitching. It made a face at him as though not liking what it smelled before looking away, an uncertain expression on its face, as though it didn't know what to say or do.

_Just don't do anything,_ Atsuo growled mentally.

"So what else happened today, Suzie?" asked the woman to the young girl. "Anything else fun?"

"Nope." Suzie shook her head vigorously. "But thewe was this one kid who smelled bad today. Um…I think evewyone was calling him…Atsu…Atsu…Nyou?"

"Suzie!" scolded the woman, frowning. Atsuo tightened his arms around himself and gritted his teeth. Anger flared, pulsating dangerously. The world shifted and warped, and Atsuo's body grew, becoming older.

"I think that is enough," said Daemon, appearing in front of the child.

"Shut up," he growled. Daemon's eyes narrowed.

"Don't you want to hear what I have to offer? I can give you revenge. And the strength to visit that revenge upon all who have wronged you."

Atsuo surged to his feet, glaring venomously at Daemon. "Get away from me!" he hissed. "You're a digimon! You—!"

Atsuo was cut off as a bolt of energy slammed home in his chest, knocking him backwards.

"You have yet to realize the connections humans and digimon have," Daemon said. "All of us have a second-self waiting for us in the other world. All of us has a mirror to look into. And this," Daemon raised the black trimmed digivice he had been given, "brings together those like-pairs. Do not deny what's in you, boy."

"I…" Atsuo coughed as he glared at Daemon. "…I…"

"Give me your power boy," said Daemon. "And I shall give you mine. Only together, can we achieve our goals."

Atsuo rolled to the side and spat on the ground. "Go to Hell…"

"In that case, what you refuse to give, I shall take by force."

Daemon's body blurred, and in the next moment, he was standing next to Atsuo. His clawed hand plunged downward and stabbed into the human's back. Atsuo screamed as white light poured forth from his body, enveloping the two and merging them into one.

**"Daemon, biomerge tooo…"

* * *

**

A/N: A much shorter chapter this time around. My apologies. Even with the extra time work gave me last week, things have been a bit chaotic anyway, and I could not focus as much on this story as I would have liked to.

To sum things up, this is Atsuo's exposition chapter, providing some reasons for why he's the way he is towards Suzie and digimon in general. For those of you who are wondering, the BlackBakemon are the same digimon that Rika and Takato defeated in the last chapter of 'Less than Human'. Originally, I intended for their not appearing in Atsuo's part of the tunnel to be an additional reason why he was angry, but I have since moved away from that, wanting to increase his antagonistic relationship towards Suzie (which in this case, would have been the metaphorical salt in the wounds, even though Suzie was ignorant of Atsuo's situation and his presence) and provide a bit more mystery. In regards to Atsuo's character, things are going to get…complicated. :P

Until next chapter.

-Crazyeight

* * *

6


	41. the Approaching Shadow

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.

Revival

Chapter: 41/ the Approaching Shadow

Literal equations floated aimlessly in the middle of the blue void, light shimmering between them. Every so often, one would bump into another, and the equation would warp, change into another equation, or cause small sections of it to go flying off, alone into the great blue sea. Others however, sparked, creating small flashes of light whereupon they would merge together into a blue sphere shortly before disappearing completely.

Several of these blue spheres were already forming when a sudden rush of energy blew over them, causing them to spiral out of their positions and vanish into thin air. The wave continued onwards, striking equations left and right whereupon they burst into shards of data, showering the void with electric sparkles. Almost as though they were driven by instinct, the remaining equations began to move away, aiming to escape the oncoming, destructive wave however they could. The wave surged onwards, uncaring of their existence, not striving to avoid or seek them out, as though it had an aim of its own that did not include them.

A light flared within the wave and massive wings of azure fire spread outwards. A loud roar broke upon the silence and the equations of the void trembled in response.

**…**

Ryo pushed open the door to Hypnos' rooftop, Jeri quickly following right behind him. As he panned around, looking for his partner, Jeri could see the worry that was on his face. The brown haired girl pursed her lips together in concern. Although Ryo could prove to be difficult to read, often hiding his thoughts behind a mask of coolness and jokes, she had come to know him well enough that she could see when something bothered him. And she knew what it was as well. She had, after all, been there when the most recent bombshell had been dropped into his lap.

_Milleniummon…_

Jeri's hands curled into anxious fists.

_It's not fair,_ she thought. _He doesn't seem to get a break. He left his first home because that was the only way he thought he could have peace, but it just doesn't seem to end for him. His problems are always by his side._ Jeri swallowed as they found Cyberdramon, patiently waiting at the edge of the roof, looking for all the world like a statue until he turned and saw the two approaching him. _ But…Milleniummon is on our side now, isn't he? He went pretty far to help us three years ago after all…_

Jeri placed one hand on her stomach thoughtfully. She of all people knew that it wasn't so easy to just dismiss the past like that. And Ryo had more than enough bad experiences with Milleniummon to justify caution whenever the digital god made his presence known in his life. Every time Cyberdramon went wild was a stark reminder of the battle that the Ultimate faced within himself, and by extension, the battle that Ryo faced.

_Two sides to the same coin,_ she thought. _Just like the way I am now…_

"Ryo," growled Cyberdramon with a nod. Ryo returned the nod.

"How're you holding up?" he asked the Vaccine warrior.

_"He_ has been quiet, if that is what you're asking about."

Jeri checked Ryo's expression. It appeared stone hard and unreadable. Unreadable that is to everyone save for herself. Jeri found herself biting her lower lip.

"I see." Ryo let go of a silent breath. "Well, maybe after what I've heard about, it's kind of understandable that he would show up."

Cyberdramon tilted his head in thought for a moment before nodding. "The Machinedramon's scent."

"Yeah. The others confirmed that one was there. In fact," now Ryo's face took on a more visible expression as his brow furrowed, "it sounded like almost every one of the Dark Masters were there."

"Um…" began Jeri. "Does that mean that Milleniummon is up to something? I mean, from everything that you've told me about your battles with him, he had the ability to bring back old, defeated digimon."

As she said that, her mind went back to her conversations with the Legendary Tamer. The depth of experience that he had with the Mega, never mind the nature of his creation, was nothing short of extraordinary. And that was just putting it mildly.

_If the other's knew what he told me…_ thought Jeri, but she quickly put a stop to the thought. Now was not the time.

Ryo's frown deepened as he thought about her question. "It's possible…but that doesn't explain the way he acted earlier when he took control of Cyberdramon." He glanced at his partner, who nodded.

"He did not even bother to hide anything from me," Cyberdramon growled. "He felt…surprised."

"And when was the last time you knew Milleniummon to be surprised about something?" asked Ryo. Cyberdramon's claws clicked in response.

"I could name a few…"

Ryo sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Point taken. But that still doesn't change the situation. If it wasn't Milleniummon who brought back those three Dark Masters, then…who was it?"

"Couldn't they have just come back on their own?" asked Jeri. "I mean, the show always used to say that digimon could come back…" Jeri's words drifted off as she wrung her hands together. "Well…that sounded kind of silly, didn't it? I mean, the _real_ digital world is different."

_"Our_ digital world is different," corrected Ryo. "But the one I came from was closer to what you're talking about. Anyway, from what I know, the digital world is set up so that bad digimon don't get a chance to come back. It's not one hundred percent foolproof, but that's the idea in theory."

"And only a few digimon have ever gone beyond the bonds of deletion and the Dark Area," noted Cyberdramon.

"Right. It's not impossible, but it's not likely either. And with the way that the three Dark Masters were described, I'm thinking that it's unlikely they would have come back on their own."

"What do you mean?"

"The others said that they were…zombie-like or something," replied Jeri. "Maybe possessed. Rika said that there was another one of those circle-things on their bodies, like before with other digimon. I wonder what those things are."

"If it weren't for the fact that those digimon tend to be stronger than usual, I'd suggest capturing one to get a closer look," said Ryo. "But since it doesn't look like that's going to be happening, the best we can hope for is that we can take them down before they cause too much trouble."

Ryo's expression became stone again, and Jeri's lips became one thin line of concern.

_Ryo…_ She knew that look of his and recognized it for what it was. Even though the Legendary Tamer tried to keep his emotions disguised, he tended to share a lot more in common with the leader of the Tamers, Takato, then he let on.

_They're both so different,_ she thought._ Ryo keeps his emotions hidden, and Takato always has his right where everyone can see them. But no matter what, when it comes to big events, they both have the same look, like they're holding the weight of the whole world on their shoulders and no one else can help them._ Jeri's expression changed from one of concern to one of irritation. Although she never liked prying when she felt her doing so was not wanted, she had come to dislike the habit that Ryo and sometimes Takato had of keeping everyone at arm's length so that they wouldn't have to worry as well. Over the past three years, Ryo had let her into his confidence and Takato just had difficulty hiding anything from Rika due to the bond that they shared, but there were times that the two boys fell back into their old habits, regardless of promises and shared experiences.

_Sometimes I think our men could use a swift kick in the butt,_ she thought before berating herself for the rather childish thought. Still, there was something to the idea that she felt Rika at least would agree to wholeheartedly.

Jeri marched towards Cyberdramon. The Ultimate swung his head towards her as she came to a halt in front of him.

"Um…Cyberdramon?" she began uncertainly. "Is there…is there a way that we could _talk_ to Milleniummon?"

"Jeri…" began Ryo while Cyberdramon gritted his teeth and growled at the girl, causing her to tense up.

"Um…I'm sorry," she began while Ryo placed a warding hand in front of her.

"Easy there, Cyberdramon," said Ryo. The Ultimate backed off, but he flexed his claws in agitation. Ryo turned towards the brown haired girl, an apologetic look on his face. "Sorry about that. He can be kinda touchy about Milleniummon."

"No, I'm sorry. I should have thought…"

"Jeri." Ryo placed one hand on the girl's arm, causing her to stiffen slightly in surprise at the unexpected contact. For once, whether Ryo noticed, she could not tell. Not by his expression or his movements. Instead, he gave her a warm, award-winning smile, just like he did every time she ever saw him win a digimon match or ace an exam. "Look. We'll figure this out. We've always managed before."

"I know, it's just…" Jeri raised one hand hesitantly and placed it on Ryo's. She glanced down at it for a moment before her amber eyes rose to meet his blue ones. "…I'd like to help. I really do. I said I'd be there for when you needed to talk, and…and…" Jeri ceased talking, no longer trusting her words as her voice was already beginning to take on a jittery feel to it. Just what had happened? She hadn't been like this since…well, since she had feelings for Takato.

All of a sudden, a conversation that she had with her fellow schoolmate Nako sprang to mind.

**…**

"_Aren't the two of you always __clinging__ to each other?"_

_"Ah…" Jeri's cheeks bloomed slightly red and she took a conscious step backwards. "We…we don't…our relationship isn't like that…"_

**…**

"Ah…" Jeri's hand suddenly jumped away from Ryo's, as though it had been touched by an electrical shock. Ryo raised an eyebrow.

"You okay?" he asked. Jeri nodded quickly, flashing a smile at him while her face began to flush.

"Yeah! I'm…um…I'm fine! I just…"

"Ryo," growled Cyberdramon. "We should leave soon. Her family is waiting for her, and you promised to have her home at a _reasonable_ hour."

"It's still daylight out," replied Ryo with a slight frown, but he turned towards Jeri. "Do you want to go home now?"

Jeri hesitated a moment before nodding, feeling as though she were a coward for doing so.

**…**

"There they go," observed Terriermon from his perch on Henry's shoulder.

"There who goes?" asked the half-Chinese Tamer, raising an eyebrow. Attaching one limb-like ear to the side of the boy's head, the rabbit-dog digimon turned his gaze upwards, shading both of their eyes from the sun with the remaining ear.

"Ryo, Jeri, and Cyberdramon, duh," replied Terriermon. "Really, Henry. Try to keep up. You knew that those two were heading up towards the roof."

"I'm sure he's got a lot on his mind," said Takato, his gaze also tracking their course. "I mean, after today, we _all_ do."

"Digimon who can bio-emerge without being detected rates as being pretty high as far as occupying the brain goes," noted Dracmon as he trailed after Miki, his arms folded behind his head. "And now we have to do regular patrols to make sure that none of them slip through the cracks without our knowing it? There goes my evening anime time."

"Mom _was_ wondering what was going on with our TV bill," frowned Miki. "I thought it was you, but she didn't believe me. I think I ought to volunteer us a lot more now."

Dracmon shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly. "Not my problem, Miki. I pay her back with saving the world after all. It works out in the end, especially now that you have a job with the government."

"You have yet to fulfill that part of your duty," chuckled Crusadermon as she, Ayaka, Kenta, and MarineAngemon followed the group. "At least, in any way that would be large enough to repay your partner's mother. And we were only recently hired."

"Which reminds me," wondered Ayaka, placing her hands on her hips. "Are we getting paid for this?"

"Now _that's_ something to think about," giggled Terriermon. "And what about us digimon? Do _we_ get paid? I mean, Guilmon would probably blow their budget with his eating habits, so he's out of the question…"

"Hey!" exclaimed the red dinosaur, but Terriermon continued nonetheless.

"…but what about the rest of us?"

"What about you?" laughed Henry, reaching up and rapping his partner on the side of his head. "I seem to recall that you're quite the bottomless pit yourself."

"You watch yourself, Henry. I'll unionize."

"You know," spoke up Rika, "if the world is destroyed then you most definitely _won't_ get paid."

"Oh, sure. This from the girl who lives with the upper-class society. You never have to worry about going hungry."

"Funny," said Henry. "My dad gets paid well, but ever since you came along we're _always_ having to worry about where our next meal is coming from."

"Hey! Do I _look_ like Guilmon to you?"

"Sometimes it can be hard to tell."

Guilmon eyed the duo for a moment with frantic eyes before looking up at Takato.

"Takato? I'm not that big of an eater, am I?"

"Uh…" began Takato, suddenly feeling uncomfortable at being put on the spot like that. "Well…you could use a diet…"

_"Needs_ a diet," laughed Rika, reaching out and patting the dinosaur on his head. "But we'll help you out with that. Trust me."

"Uh, oh." Guilmon's ears wilted. "Why am I getting worried all of a sudden?"

"Huh? Hey! What's _that_ supposed to mean?"

Henry smiled at the trio before turning over to Noriko, who had a pensive expression on her face.

"Hey, Noriko. Are you all right?"

"Momentai! She's probably still wondering about Lumemon."

Henry ignored Terriermon's comment while the dark-haired girl offered him a slight, reassuring smile.

"Sorry. I'm just being a worrywart, that's all. I'm sure everything's going to be fine. You know how Lumemon can be sometimes. Always forgetful. Well…" Noriko giggled as she made an amendment. "…mostly."

"Giving angel-mon a little too much credit, aren't you?" asked Terriermon with a grin.

"Terriermon…"

"What? Don't tell me no one was thinking it! I'm just here to say what no one else will say!"

"Doesn't mean it's always right," sighed Henry, shaking his head.

"Right. Anyway, what's the plan now? Don't we have to start figuring out who goes on patrol and stuff?"

"Oh, that's easy," laughed Ayaka, looping her arm around Kenta and pulling him close to her, bumping her hip against his. "Kenta and I can take the first shift. We work well together as well, so I don't think that we need anyone else…"

"Right," said Rika in a deadpan tone. "And the fact that you're both boyfriend and girlfriend just makes things even more convenient for you."

"Wow. Someone sounds jealous," giggled Terriermon. "Aren't you connected to Takatomon over there? I thought you two were already working together and everything."

_"That_ has _nothing _to do with…"

"Can we just stay on track with the conversation?" interceded Takato, raising his hands in a placating gesture.

"Yes," added Henry, giving his partner an exasperated look. _"Please."_

"Right. Um…well, what do you think, Henry?" asked Takato. "I mean, Ayaka does make a good point. She and Kenta do work pretty well together. MarineAngemon is good on defense and healing and Crusadermon makes up the combat part. Plus they're well balanced as far as type goes: MarineAngemon's a Vaccine while Crusadermon is a Virus."

"I think it works," nodded Henry in agreement while on his shoulder Terriermon's runaway mouth continued to work its miracles.

"Just as long as they aren't caught kissing in the middle of battle, they should be fine."

"Terriermon…"

"If we're done with you two and your never-ending merry-go-round, can we finish working this out?" asked Rika, sounding a little irritated now. "And Henry, what about Suzie? Even if Yamaki doesn't want her getting involved in any battles, she's going to want to be doing something anyway."

Terriermon looked down at him. "She's got a point. You know what these kids are like at that age."

"That…sounds so strange coming from you. But I'll have to have a talk with her. Mom said that she was going to pick up Suzie after she was done with her session, but with the way things are on the streets I think I'd better have a look in on her." Henry glanced at Noriko. "Um…will you be okay on your own or…?"

"I'll be fine," smiled Noriko. "You just take care of your little sister."

"Oh…man," groaned Kazu, rolling his eyes as he folded his arms behind his head. Rika raised an eyebrow at him.

"I get the feeling that I'm going to regret asking what's wrong…"

"Nah," Kazu shrugged with a grin. "It's nothin'. The air just seems a little bit thick, that's all. So who gets to take care of the next patrol and who goes with who? I vote myself, and I'd like to have ol' Chumley with me for once. You always have him with you like you're stuck to each other."

"They kinda are," mooted Terriermon while Rika scowled.

"I don't know… Takato and I…um…we've trained together, so we know each other's moves inside and out. With the link, we're less likely to be tripping over each other as well…"

"She's got a point," said Takato, giving the boy an apologetic look. "But I'm thinking that we should mix things up at some point so that none of us get too dependent on whoever we're partnered with."

"That's actually a good idea," said Henry with an approving smile. Rika frowned slightly, but after a moment nodded in agreement.

"It's not often you get good ideas, Takato. But when you get them, they have a way of making sense."

Takato chuckled slightly in embarrassment. "Thanks you guys."

"It's just too bad that you don't make sense 90 percent the rest of the time," Rika added with a playful smirk.

"Hey!" Takato exclaimed, though the grin on his face told her that he saw through her words. Glancing over at Kazu, Takato's grin faltered and he reached up to scratch the side of his face in agitated thought. "Well…I could pull a double-shift this time…"

"Forget it," grumbled Kazu, shrugging his shoulders. "I'll just take Miki with me."

The dark haired girl in question raised a surprised eyebrow.

"Say wha…?"

"Wouldn't you want to get patrol done and over with as soon as you can?" asked Kazu.

"I-I've got homework I need to catch up on tonight," stammered the girl, still reeling with shock from Kazu's earlier suggestion. She scowled at the boy beneath her bangs. "Don't go making decisions about my schedule without my input!"

Henry looked back and forth between the two before sighing mentally. "This is going to take a little bit of working out and getting used to. Tell you what. Why don't the two of you finish out the patrol in the morning and we can all get together later on and work out how things went and decide from there how the next teams are going to be."

"Hey, if worse comes to worse we can always choose by lottery," supplied Terriermon. Everyone turned to look at the long-eared digimon in surprise. He looked back and forth between the Tamers as he noticed that all eyes were on him. "What? Do I have peanut butter on my nose or something?"

**…**

Noriko laughed softly to herself as she made her way home on her own. Henry had stayed behind to look in on his sister while the rest of the Tamers broke into their own groups and went their own way. Ayaka and Kenta took up first patrol as they had promised and after a three-hour interval would phone Takato and Rika, who it was decided would be next in line. After that would be herself and Henry.

Noriko found herself giggling a little at the prospect of the patrol. She felt a little anxious, as the nature of the patrol was serious, but she couldn't help but feel a little giddy about it.

_If no digimon show up, could it count as a date?_ she wondered. _Probably not. I mean, we won't be going to any movies or anything, or even going to restaurants of anything else. We'll just be…walking around. Enjoying the nightlife…_

Noriko gulped as her face heated up slightly. Her and Henry…again. For the second time, and without any of the usual excuses as being in the same class or just being friends. Their families liked to tease them about their 'get-togethers' and…

_Oh!_ Noriko's eyes widened slightly as a thought occurred to her._ Mom. She might be doing something tonight. I remember that she mentioned something about it a couple days ago, and she'll probably want me to keep an eye on Daisuke._

Noriko swung a fist by her waist, wanting to bang it against something so as to relieve her temper. Daisuke…that boy was old enough to be able to stay up on his own, wasn't he? She herself had plenty of freedom when she was ten—besides her duty in keeping an eye on her little brother that is—and so did Suzie as well.

_When Henry isn't being overprotective of her,_ she thought. That was, perhaps, the only fault that she found in her boyfriend—the word making her flush as soon as she thought it—but she was also in the same boat. The duties of being the responsible, older sibling could weigh a person down sometimes. Not for the first time did she wonder what it was like to be one of the other Tamers like Takato or Kazu or even Kenta, who were all single children. Did they have to deal with as much responsibility, or was even more expected from them?

_Hmmm…I wonder if I can have Daisuke hang out with Suzie and keep her company for tonight. Those two haven't hung out in quite a while._ Noriko felt a smile curve on her face as she remembered the incident that had parted the two last. _Not since Daisuke told her that he wasn't going to marry her._

Noriko felt a giggle bubble up in her and she clapped one hand over her mouth in embarrassment, trying to repress it. The sound of her cell phone ringing seemed like a Godsend, as it would give her something else but her brother's antics to think about.

_Ahhh…kids,_ she thought, pulling out her phone and hitting the answer button. _Can't believe that I just thought that. _"Hello."

_"Noriko?"_ came the voice of her mother, Aiko Nakata, from the other end. Noriko giggled lightly and sniffed, trying to hold down her laughter.

"Hey, Mom. I'm on my way home now, and…I'll _need_ to talk to you about tonight." Noriko put extra stress on the word _need_ as she wrung one finger through her short hair. She knew that her mother wasn't going to like the change in plans.

_"Can it wait until you get home?"_ asked Aiko, sounding a little bit cross for some reason. _"I would like to talk to Lumemon."_

"Lumemon? Um…he's not here right now. What's up?"

_"Well…it's just… Well, is he on his way back home now? I saw on the news that there was a digimon attack, so I thought that he might be delayed with saving the city, but some of the groceries I sent him for—such as the ice cream—need to be refrigerated soon and…"_

Alarm bells went off in Noriko's head. Something was not right.

"Um…Mom? I haven't seen Lumemon all day. And…" Noriko glanced around before moving her free hand over the mouthpiece of her cell phone, dropping her voice so that it would become harder for others to hear her. If word about today's incident got out… "…there was a bit of a problem with our partners detecting the digimon that bio-emerged."

_"I'm sorry, would you mind repeating that?"_

"Mom. There's no way Lumemon would have been able to get to that fight. He…he wouldn't have known about it. It's…kind of hard to explain out here. Top secret stuff, Mom. I can't really say it over the phone."

There was a pause on the other end as Aiko digested this.

_"Lumemon's not with you,"_ she said finally. _"And he's not here either. Is…everything all right?"_

"Mom. I'm going to hurry up and get home. I can explain what I'm talking about there easier and…" Noriko licked her lips as a feeling of dread began to flow through her. "…and you can tell me what's going on. I'll be there soon."

_"All right. Stay safe."_

With that, Aiko hung up, and Noriko did likewise. She wet her lips once more as her heart beat a nervous pitter-patter in her chest.

_Why do I have a feeling that I'm not going to like what I'm about to find out?_

**…**

"And that's the report," finished Riley as Yamaki finished buttoning up his shirt, the two of them nodding to the doctor as he put away his equipment.

"Very well," said Yamaki, getting up from the bed and shrugging on his suit. "It looks as though you've covered all the bases with the Tamers. Have them submit their reports and their current group assignments and we can determine from there where to go."

"Yes sir," nodded Riley, flipping the sheet of paper on the clipboard that she was carrying.

"Is there more?"

"Well, you'll want to talk to Shibumi about Urocyomon. I looked in on him and…" Riley turned the clipboard towards Yamaki, and the man accepted it, his eyes darting over the information it contained. "…well, I think you'll want to talk to him."

Yamaki frowned. "I see. Where is he now?"

"The main lab, sir." Riley glanced away briefly before returning her gaze to her boss's eyes. "Urocyomon is in serious condition sir. Shibumi said that they had to put a freeze on his data to prevent him from decompiling."

Yamaki tapped on the sheet of paper, making a notation of the data report there. On the sheet were the words 'missing code' and 'abnormality'.

"I'm going there now."

**…**

"All right," said Shibumi, breathing a sigh of relief as he wiped a hand over his brow. "We have him stable. Now let's see what we can find ou—"

The sound of a door opening caused Shibumi to turn towards its source, and he smiled in greeting at Yamaki and Riley as they entered the room.

"What's the situation?" asked Yamaki, wasting no time.

"It's difficult to say," said Shibumi, leaning back in his chair. "We've had to work pretty hard to keep him stable—and we've had to rework to machines repeatedly to do so. Ms. Ootori gave you the preliminary report, right?"

"She has," nodded Yamaki. "The report, briefly, mentioned that there was missing data from Urocyomon's digi-core…"

"That's what it looks like. However," Shibumi turned towards his computer, looking at the influx of data as it came in, "I can't quite make heads or tails of what it is that he's missing. He still has all the codes needed to retain his physical form and exist as a digimon, but something appears to have been taken out, and it's causing a cascade effect that's making the rest begin to unravel. Even now."

Yamaki raised an eyebrow. "Explain."

"We have his data frozen for right now. It was all we could do to keep him from deleting right away. For some reason, whatever has happened to him is resisting our attempts to stabilize him. Even the freezing is limited for some reason. It might be because of the density of data, but…" Shibumi ran a hand over his balding head and sighed. "…either way, it's not looking good. Unless we can determine how to fix him, he could go at any time. He might have seconds…hours…maybe days, depending on the amount of stress that the digital atrophy places upon him and our energy demands."

"Energy demands?" asked Riley.

"That was Nishimura's idea. Digital first aid lies in supplying energy in a raw form directly into the digimon's digi-core. The processing is faster that way, rather than having to go about the usual methods of consummation like eating and digesting. The missing code is requiring an increasing demand for energy in order to remain stable and we had to freeze the data to slow the cost, but for some reason the cost remains."

Shibumi glanced off to the side at a tube of liquid, wherein lay a silver-furred fox. "I don't think we can chance reverse-digivolving him in order to lower the energy requirements. He appears to be very…dependent on the code that he's missing for every aspect of his existence."

Shibumi turned towards Yamaki and Riley. "I'm sorry. But until we can get more information on Urocyomon's structure, there's very little that we can do to help him."

Yamaki narrowed his gaze and pulled his sunglasses out from his pocket, placing them onto his face.

"Very well. Do what you can on this end. We'll see what we can do on ours."

* * *

A/N: School for me is back on, and with it comes all the lovely craziness that goes with it. Anyway, a lot more happening in this chapter than in the previous, namely some advancement in Ryo and Jeri's relationship, some more focus on Noriko's thought process, and the steady arrival of a new entity coming to make the Tamers lives a living hell. Kudos points to anyone who can work out who it is. ;P

'Till next time.

-Crazyeight

* * *

* * *

9


	42. In the Light of Sunset

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.

Revival

Chapter: 42/ In the Light of Sunset

In the fading light of the day, Jeri sat on the roof just outside her bedroom window, gazing out over her neighborhood with a thoughtful expression on her face. Here and there, children played in the streets, shouting and making noise. One of them, a small, brown haired boy in a white T-shirt, had his arms scrunched up against his sides and a snarling expression on his face, chased after the other children, stomping his feet into the pavement.

"Grawr!" the boy shouted. "I am Greymon! Fear my Nova Flame!"

One of the boys gave a false shout and laughed. "Run everyone! He's going to tear down Tokyo! We'd better get the Tamers for help!"

With that, the group took off like a shot, with the 'Greymon' continuing to lumber after them, making low, hissing sounds and waving his face in all directions as though he were spreading fire. After another moment, the boy let out a howl.

At another time, Jeri would have laughed over the display, as it would have reminded her of Takato. Not tonight however. Tonight, her thoughts were elsewhere, and on a completely different person.

A familiar weight settled on the top of her head and a second later a pair of wide, green eyes surrounded by a white face obstructed her vision, causing Jeri to squeak and jerk in surprise.

"Ah! Calumon!"

"Hiya, Jeri!" the white digimon exclaimed loudly with a sugary laugh. "Whatcha thinkin' about?"

"Wha…?" Jeri blinked, trying to wrap her mind around the unexpected intrusion and the question that was suddenly thrust at her. "Who says that I am?"

"Because you were surprised by me, silly," Calumon smiled. "You haven't been surprised like that since I played hide-and-seek in the bathroom."

"Calumon…" Jeri scowled. _"That_ was because I caught you hiding in the toilet. That's completely different." A fearsome blush erupted on her face as she remembered that evening. The situation also hadn't been helped by the fact that she had been half-awake when she encountered the small, In-training level digimon. Calumon was, if nothing else, a fan of the never-ending game, even if said game technically ended once everyone else went to sleep.

_Stupid brother never told anyone either…_ she thought, still scowling.

"So whatcha thinking about?" asked Calumon, expanding his ears as he leapt off her head. The digimon too up a hovering position in front of her, eyes curious and wide. Jeri glanced away, not wanting him to try and read her expression.

"It's nothing."

"Oh, c'mon, Jeri? It's not nice to keep secrets. They get all bottled up inside of you and make you all messy. Remember the D-Reaper?"

"I haven't forgotten!" Jeri immediately regretted the harshness behind her words and glanced at Calumon. The In-training digimon was regarding her with a worried look. Her face becoming apologetic she reached forth and took him into her arms. Calumon giggled as he nuzzled his head against the girl's breasts, causing Jeri to both blush and scowl.

"Calumon… I thought I told you to not do that."

"I'm sorry, it's just…well, they're so soft and sq…"

"Calumon!"

The digimon giggled again, but he quieted down quickly enough. Jeri sighed. Puberty, if nothing else, had been quite the interesting time for everyone involved with digimon.

_At least it's not like what happened when I got my first period. Calumon thought I was dying and actually called 119._

Calumon looked up, his still-wide ears pushing against her chest as he smiled at her. "So whatcha thinking about?"

Jeri sighed, not for the first time feeling the same pain that Henry was put through with Terriermon. "Calumon…"

"But you should talk about it, Jeri. It doesn't do you any good if you let it eat you up inside. And it makes Scary Jeri even scarier."

Jeri pouted. The diminutive digimon was gradually wearing down her defenses. And what was perhaps the most frightening part of that realization was that he would succeed too.

"It's…complicated though…"

"That's okay. I'll listen even if I don't understand. So tell me what you're thinking about. Huh? Huh? Huh?"

A giggle emerged from her lips as they were forced to curve upwards. There were times that, no matter how she resisted and even when she was trying to be firm, Calumon would always cause her to laugh.

"It's…well, it's about Ryo," she said finally, trying to suppress her laughter and remain serious for the conversation.

"Yeah? So what about him?"

Jeri's expression became a bit more somber, and she looked out towards the streets below, as though searching for inspiration on how to best continue.

"That's…a good question. I don't know."

"What do you mean?" Calumon angled his head questioningly and blinked in confusion.

"I don't really know myself. I mean…" Jeri sighed. She felt so confused all of a sudden. How had things gotten this way?

_"Aren't the two of you always clinging to each other?"_

Nako's words sprang to mind, and at once she shook her head, causing Calumon to blink in confusion.

"Jeri? I don't think shaking your head is going to help you with talking. Your ears don't speak. They're there for listening."

"Silly Calumon…" replied Jeri in a harsh whisper. Shifting in her spot, she tightened her grip on the digimon. "I'm just confused. I…" Jeri took a deep breath and held it for a moment. "I think I'm falling in love with Ryo."

There. She said it. A strange sensation burst across her mind, like a lightning flash blinding her eyes, and at once she became rigid. That word…_love._ Did she…did she really mean it? All at once, Jeri became very self-conscious about herself. She wanted to tuck in her skirt and hang her head so that she could hide her face with her hair. Anything to avoid being…seen.

"You are?" came Calumon's question. Looking down at him, Jeri nodded. In response, Calumon's eyes brightened and he jumped out of Jeri's arms. "Well that's _great!"_ he exclaimed. "Yay! Yay! _Yaaay!_ Jeri's got a boyfriend!"

"Wha…? Calumon! I _don't_ have a boyfriend! I…"

"Huh? But, if you like someone that much, doesn't that mean that you're a couple? That's what happened with Takato and Rika, right?" Calumon tilted his head to one side questioningly and tapped his tiny paw against his chin. Jeri wanted to sigh in exasperation. In spite of the amount of time he had spent in the digital world, there were still some things that he did not quite fully understand. And some things he did not quite grasp no matter how many times they had been explained to him.

_Sometimes, his view of the world is too simple,_ commiserated Jeri.

"Calumon…" reaching out, Jeri took Calumon's paws into her hands and pulled him down so that they were face-to-face. "Takato and Rika…they went a long time before they officially became a couple, and that was…very recent in fact. Most people can like someone in a way that's like boyfriend and girlfriend, but never go anywhere because…well…" Jeri glanced away and bit her bottom lip, trying to come up with a satisfactory answer.

"But why?" asked Calumon.

"It's complicated."

Calumon shook his head and giggled. "Sounds silly. If two people like each other, than why should they not be a couple?"

"For one thing, it only works if both sides like each other in that way. If not, things can be…weird." Jeri thought back to how things were between her, Takato, and Rika, and how awkward things were between them. Much of it had to do with how close they were to each other and the conflicting emotions they each had, not least of which was helped by anyone's desire to hurt the others. "People who are friends with each other might stop being friends because of that."

"But…wouldn't that mean that they would be a couple instead?"

"They might not even be that, either," clarified Jeri. "They might not be able to see each other because of how one of them feels…or _doesn't_ feel."

"Oh." Calumon's ears wilted a little as he processed this information, but they remained that way for only a moment. "It still sounds kinda silly. If you're friends, really good ones, then why would you not be able to hang out because you can't be a couple?"

_Did he…completely forget everything that happened between me, Takato and Rika?_ Jeri found herself wondering. There were times where she did not understand what went on in Calumon's mind. The digimon had a bizarre way of getting to the root of some problems, often times having a peculiar wisdom that contradicted with how he usually acted. And other times…

_Sometimes he has an attention span that's even shorter than Kazu in Math class…_

"That's just how people are sometimes," replied Jeri, forcing a small smile on her face.

_ After all,_ she finished in her head, _when we know what we can't have is right next to us—so close but so far—it hurts._

**…**

"It's almost time to call it quits," mused Rika, glancing at the direction of the sun as she and Takato made their way down the streets of Shinjuku.

"Hm?" Takato glanced at the red-haired girl with a quizzical expression only to brighten up in realization. "Oh, yeah. I guess we'd better call Henry soon then, huh?"

Rika nodded, pursing her lips together in thought. Nearly six hours had passed since their meeting at Hypnos adjourned. Ayaka and Kenta had gone home after giving them a call that their patrol time was over, and now it was their time.

_Feels weird though,_ thought Rika, stuffing her hands in her pockets. _It's been so quiet that it almost feels like we're on a date._

Rika scowled at the thought. In some ways, she was still not certain what to make of her relationship with Takato, having started as abruptly as it did, but she had accepted it all the same. The only question that remained was…where did they go from here?

_This is_ not _the time to be thinking about that kind of stuff,_ she berated herself. _We're still on patrol. Anything could happen, and we've got to keep an eye out for anything out of the ordinary._

Rika resisted the urge to massage her temples. All of a sudden, she was starting to wonder if she was turning into every other prissy girl that she knew in school; fawning over their boyfriends and unable to do anything but think about them. The idea was more than enough to make her head hurt.

Pulling out her cell phone, she checked the time. It was almost eight o'clock. "Might as well give him a call now."

"You sure?" asked Takato. "We still have a bit of time left, don't we?" Takato pointed up ahead, indicating Guilmon who was further up ahead, testing the air with his nose. "Besides, it looks like Guilmon might have something."

"He's probably smelling food," mooted Rika, already going through down the list of numbers in her address book. "You know how Dino-boy is. If he smelled a digimon, he would have immediately gone after it."

"That's true. What about Renamon?" Looking up, Takato scanned the rooftops and telephone poles for the illusive kitsune. "Has she picked up anything?"

"Not a thing." Rika paused at Henry's number and glanced up at the sky, her violet eyes contemplative. "It's quiet out."

_"Too_ quiet," chuckled Takato.

"You're not funny."

"Sorry. I was just trying to lighten the mood."

"Well, you failed," Rika smirked. "Anything else you'd like to try?"

"Um…the stars are pretty?" Takato nervously scratched his cheek, furtively looking up at the night sky. "…just…like you?"

Rika stared at Takato with a stone face. For an instant, she wasn't sure whether to grin at his rather stupid attempt at complimenting her or call him out on its lameness. After a moment, she simply backed out of her address book and pocketed her cell phone, leaving Takato to look at her with a raised eyebrow.

"Um…Rika? What are you…?"

"We can keep patrolling for a bit longer," she interrupted, folding her arms beneath her breasts. "Like you said, we've still got some time, and with your luck you'll probably end up tripping over a Wild One or something. We probably won't even need Guilmon's sense of smell."

"Um…thanks I guess?" Takato scratched the back of his head in confusion before finally shrugging.

The pair continued on in silence for several minutes before Guilmon trotted over to them, a disappointed look on his face.

"Something the matter, boy?" asked Takato. Guilmon furrowed his brow.

"I thought I smelled a digimon, but…" Guilmon rubbed a claw across his nose and made a face. "I don't know. There was something a little weird about the smell. Like it was there and not there at the same time."

The two Tamers exchanged looks.

"Maybe it's an old scent?" suggested Takato.

"Nah-ah." Guilmon shook his head vigorously. "I can always tell when a smell is old. It's like when Takato forgets to ink his drawings and they fade away after a little while. It's still there. This smell though…" Guilmon sniffed and again wiped at his nose in frustration. "It's both there and not there at the same time. It's weird. I don't know how I can explain it."

"Hmmm…" Rika narrowed her eyes. "Renamon?"

The vulpine digimon materialized into view directly behind her. "Yes?"

"Did you get everything that Guilmon said to us?"

"Of course." Renamon narrowed her blue eyes. "However, I have not sensed anything out of the ordinary. I should also point out that my nose isn't as powerful as Guilmon's."

"This could be part of those digimon that we fought earlier," suggested Takato. "Maybe it's a Piedmon or something, trying to keep a low cover."

"And why is Guilmon picking him up even a _little_ bit when the first three 'Dark Master' digimon weren't even giving anything away?" asked Rika pointedly.

"Um…okay, you have a good point there." Takato crossed his arms and thought. "Maybe it's a small, weak digimon. Probably In-training or Fresh level. Maybe Rookie?"

"Or perhaps the effect wears off after a certain amount of time," suggested Renamon.

"Either way," said Rika. "We're not getting anywhere just talking about this. If Guilmon says he has something then we should check it out."

"But," began Guilmon, "I can't tell what way to go. I'm not even sure if I'm smelling a digimon."

"What else could it be?" asked Takato. "We haven't seen any digignomes in years and you know what they smell like."

"I'm going to give Henry a call," said Rika, pulling out her cell phone once more. "It's almost time for him to take his turn at patrol anyway. He should know about this anyway."

"Okay. We'll keep investigating." Takato turned to his partner, a confident fire burning in his eyes. "What do you say, boy? Think you're up to it?"

"Well, I like peanut butter…"

Rika raised an eyebrow and looked at Takato. "And that translates too…?"

"Uh…" Takato chuckled and rubbed the back of his head. "I think he meant to say 'does he like peanut butter' in response to my question."

"Yeah!" exclaimed Guilmon happily. Rika rolled her eyes.

"You two are nuts. Makes me wonder why I love you, Gogglehead."

**…**

Bakumon flew down an alley and hid himself behind a trashcan, glancing around the corner to make sure no one was following him. After a moment, he breathed a sigh of relief.

_That…was too close,_ he thought to himself. _That stupid red dino nearly caught me. I have to be more careful. Prometheus said that the protection he gave me isn't one hundred percent fool proof. If I mess up, no amount of sensory scrambling is going to protect me._

Leaning his back against the alley wall, the Rookie closed his eyes.

_All this for that girl—the Digimon Queen—is worth it. Once I finish with what I have to do for Prometheus, I can do what I want and make her mine. Hopefully that won't be too long now. Prometheus said he was going to start making his move tonight and then we would be proceeding to the next phase of the plan… Whatever it is. All I have to do is pay a certain little girl a visit._

He opened his eyes, and a faint, golden aura surrounded his irises. A small smile drew across his mouth, and within short order, he faded from view.

_All right, Suzie. Time for you to put on a show…_

**…**

"All right," said Henry into his cell phone. "I'll be right there."

Hanging up, Henry got up from his computer and collected his cards and D-Arc. On his bed, Terriermon was bouncing up and down, giggling all the while.

"So, we're going out on patrol now, are we? How are our two newest love birds?"

"Well, they may have found something," replied Henry as he clipped his D-Arc to his waist. Terriermon landed on the bed, this time not jumping back up.

"May have? If this were just Takato, I'd accept that, but he's got Guilmon, Rika, and Renamon with him. Rika's good at noticing things and Renamon's a ninja. Guilmon could track a runaway Piemon through a burning building separated by two layers of digital world. I don't think 'may have' is even in their dictionary, and I'd like to point out that Guilmon _is_ learning from one."

"That…may be the most you've complimented anyone," noted Henry, looking at his partner with a bit of awe. Terriermon chuckled.

"Don't be so surprised. I was about to go on and mention about how Rika doesn't seem to notice that her catch of a boyfriend doesn't seem to have a clue."

"Terriermon…"

"Aaand right on cue. See Henry? This is why we make such a great team. We're so reliable."

"More like predictable." Henry held out one hand for his partner, and the rabbit-dog digimon scrambled up it, racing up his arm and eventually settling down onto his shoulder. "Anyway, Rika said that Guilmon came across something that might be a digimon scent, but he's not sure. She said it was 'off'."

"That's descriptive," said Terriermon in a deadpan voice. "I always said Rika was a girl of few words. Speaking of girls, are you going to give Noriko a call?"

"I was just about to do that," the half-Chinese Tamer said with a nod. Raising his cell phone, he immediately began to scroll through his address book and a moment later he hit the call button.

**…**

Standing in the park, Noriko stared down at the ground, a dull expression on her face that belied the hints of tears that stung the corners of her eyes. Noriko drew a hand across her face and sniffed lightly. Her eyes clear, she raised her hand for what was now more times than she cared to count. As she did so, lines of light rushed across her forearm and into her hand whereupon they coalesced. A second later, the holographic tracking circle common to all of the Tamers' digivices materialized above her palm. No sound emerged from the circle, but the arrow at its corner swung wildly from one end of the next, yet settled on no single direction. After several seconds, the holographic compass receded back into her skin. Noriko let out a defeated groan and hung her head.

"Not again…" she moaned. She rocked back and forth on her feet, trying to relieve the pain that now permeated every spot of her soles. No relief came to her however and instead, her feet protested heavily with an increased flare of pain, demanding that she sit down to take a rest.

_No,_ she thought to her feet determinedly. _Jeez. You'd think being transformed into a living digivice would prevent you from feeling fatigue, but I guess not. _Glowering she reactivated the compass function. The circle reappeared and she began switching back and forth between screens, hoping to find some function that she might have missed. She had done so earlier, but she came up with nothing then. She knew that she was wasting her time, but the knowledge that she still did not know the full potential of her capabilities spurred her onwards. After about a minute, however she made a disgusted sound and deactivated the circle.

Running a hand through her dark hair in exasperation, she looked up at the sky, noting the color of the sky.

_The sun is setting. Jeez…have I been looking for _that_ long?_ Noriko's lip stiffened slightly in frustration and she shook her head. _Damn it!_ she scolded herself, clenching her eyes shut tightly to prevent any resurgence of tears. _No more of that! I've got to get a hold of myself! I've got to find Lumemon! Oh Lumemon…where are you?_

"LUMEMON!"

The shout ripped free from her lips, surprising her. One hand clapped to her mouth as a fearsome blush erupted on her face. A passing jogger fixed her with an odd look before continuing.

_Great. And now I've got some person thinking I'm a crazy Tamer. Wonderful. _Noriko sighed. _I'm all messed up, and I'm not getting anywhere._ _Maybe I should call Hypnos or Henry or _someone_ to help me with this. Let's face it. This is serious._

Noriko continued down the park path, a depressed, lost look on her face. Somehow, everything had gone wrong in the short time that she was at school, but for the life of her, she could not figure out how it could have done so.

_Lumemon was supposed to be in his disguise,_ she thought. _No one should know that he's a digimon. Unless he did something stupid again like show his wings off in public…_

Noriko thought about that for a moment, becoming increasingly angry until she realized the futility of doing so. Taking a deep breath, she forced herself to calm down, trying to work out what could possibly have happened.

_I talked to the people who worked at the grocery store. That girl at the checkout counter said that she saw him a little bit before lunch. That means he should have been on his way home after that. He's not the sort to dawdle or anything when he's running an errand. He takes this path all the time, so…_

Noriko felt her expression falter even further than it was already…if that was even possible. She had already been down this route a couple times, as she knew Lumemon always went through the park after picking up groceries. She didn't know why she was here again. It wasn't as though there was anything new that she could find, so _why_ did she keep coming back here?

As though to prove her wrong, the sound of something rustling in the brush beside her caught her attention. Glancing to the side, she saw a squirrel come rushing out with a rice ball sticking out of its mouth. Raising an eyebrow, Noriko made her way in the direction that the animal had come from. Pushing aside some bushes, she found a small what appeared to be torn plastics with food scattered in every direction.

"What happened here?" she asked herself, now moving closer. She paused briefly to check her surroundings to make sure no one was around before continuing. The last thing she needed was for there to be someone lying in wait for her…

The sound of her cell phone ringing caused the girl to jump and squeak in surprise. Fumbling, she pulled it out of her jeans pocket and flipped it open, forgetting to check the caller ID in the process.

_Probably Mom,_ she thought. "H-Hello?"

_"Hey, Noriko."_

"Henry!" Noriko's eyes lit up and automatically she rubbed her sleeve over her face, sniffing again. "W-What's up?"

_"I was calling to remind you that we have patrol duty."_

_ "Yeah!"_ chimed in another voice from the phone. _"You didn't forget, did you?"_

_ "Terriermon…"_

"No. No." Noriko sniffed again. "I didn't forget. I'm just…" she trailed off and bit her lower lip. A part of her was hesitant to tell Henry about this latest development, not wanting to involve anyone until she had exhausted every other possibility of resolving it on her own, but she knew that she was out of options.

_"Is everything all right?"_ came Henry's worried tone.

"I…" Noriko drew in a deep breath and sighed. "No. No, everything's not all right." She pressed a hand into her hair and clenched her eyes shut. "My mom called me a while ago. Lumemon never came home today, and I can't find him. I've been up and down this city all afternoon. I…I _think_ I may have found the groceries he was supposed to pick up. I recognize Daisuke's Tofu. You know how he's been picky about what he eats lately." Noriko settled down next to the torn grocery bags and sorted through them. Bread, eggs, milk… Noriko found herself wincing at the waste. Everything in here was on her mother's grocery list, including the Uni, the salt-pickled Sea Urchin that her mother sometimes favored as a side dish.

_"Why didn't you tell me?"_ asked Henry in a highly worried tone, only to continue onwards, not waiting for an answer. _"Never mind. Where are you now?"_

"I'm in the park, a short ways off from Guilmon's old home. I can head there and meet yo—oh!"

_"Huh? Noriko? What's going on?"_

Frowning, Noriko turned towards the ground that she was standing on. _Did I really see…?_

Yes! Something sparkled. Not gem-like, as a stone, but more like a twinkle, like a star. The lack of light because of all the trees and the setting sun made her immediately curious. Leaning down, she ran a hand over the grass.

A long, rainbow-like beam of light ran the length of the ground, and for an instant, the grass appeared to dissolve into static before returning to normal. Noriko blinked, her eyes widening in surprise.

"Henry? You're _definitely_ going to want to see this…"

**…**

Suzie lay on her bed, feet kicking at the air as she busily read a book. Glancing up, she saw Henry rush by.

"See ya!" exclaimed Terriermon from the boy's shoulder, waving an ear at her. "We're outta here!"

"You guys heading out on that patrol thing you were talking about?" asked Suzie, putting her bookmark in to mark her place. Hopping down she followed her older brother and his motor-mouth partner to the door, Lopmon trailing after her.

"Yeah," acknowledged Henry. "But Noriko, Takato, and Rika have all found something. I've got to meet them in the park."

"Yeah?" A grin materialized on Suzie's face and she immediately looked over to where her shoes were parked. Seeing this, Henry shook her head.

"Sorry, Suzie. But it's a little late for you to be going outside."

Suzie huffed and folded her arms across her chest. "Like you weren't going out at weird hours to fight the Devas."

"I seem to recall that you're not allowed to go out and fight evil for the time being," came Mayumi's voice as she approached her children. "The order came down from your father, who got it from his boss…remember?"

"Phooey," pouted Suzie. "Dad called home, didn't he?"

"Afraid so, Princess. No going out for you tonight."

"Well…only so long as it's not the end of the world," mooted Terriermon. "Again."

Mayumi rolled her eyes. "Terriermon…"

Terriermon blinked. "Okay. Now that was creepy…"

Chuckling, Henry finished putting on his shoes. Reaching out he ruffled Suzie's hair. "Don't worry. As much as I hate to admit it, you'll get your chance to fight, just like the rest of us."

"Henry!" exclaimed Terriermon, agape at his partner. "I am _shocked!_ Since when do you think like that?"

"Not now, Terriermon." Henry kicked one foot on the floor, settling the shoe. "All right, Mom. I should be home sometime before midnight."

"So long as Noriko doesn't decide to keep him up all night," giggled Terriermon. "You know those two lovebirds. They _love_ to fly."

Henry groaned and rolled his eyes. "Terriermon…"

"Oh, really." Mayumi eyed her youngest son critically. "Well, I suppose it had to happen eventually…"

_"Mom!"_

"Just come back at a reasonable hour," Mayumi chuckled. Glancing briefly at her purse that was sitting on the chair in the kitchen area behind her, Mayumi held up a hand to her son, indicating that Henry wait before leaving. A few moments later, she returned and handed him a wad of yen. "Even though you already ate, you'll probably want something while you're out. Treat Noriko to something nice."

"Um…Mom? I really don't think we're going to have time for tha…"

"Henry…"

_Uh oh._ Henry knew that tone, and quickly accepted, though not without some degree of hesitation, her offer of money. With the cash pocketed, he bid his family goodbye and took off, closing the door behind him.

**…**

Suzie closed the door to her room with a click. Returning to her bed she flipped open the book that lay on it, only with less enthusiasm than she had earlier when she got home. She absently turned the pages, barely even reading the words on the page. After a moment, she scowled in irritation.

_Stupid Henry…_

Neither she nor Lopmon noticed the glowing pair of eyes at her window, or the shadowy form of the Bakumon that owned them.

* * *

A/N: This chapter came together a lot more easily than the previous two chapters. It developed Jeri's thoughts on Ryo as she begins to realize her growing feelings for him _and_ it brought Calumon back into the mix! I have to admit that with him no longer being central to the plot like he was in the original series, it's rather hard to include him in stories. His nature itself is rather random, making it difficult for even the cast to keep track of him. In this chapter he serves as the mon that Jeri can talk to, even though he has an incredibly simplistic way of viewing the world and has a preference for sugary treats and acting hyperactive. I've also tried to depict how he acts in Jeri's company now that she's older and more—ahem—'developed' than she was in the last story. I'm sure Calumon would find human puberty and the mess that comes with it interesting, mysterious, and all-around funny, at least in most cases.

Also some minor development of Takato and Rika's relationship, though not much. Still worth writing Takato's rather corny compliment for Rika. Gotta love that ol' Goggleheaded wonder. :P

And there was some development of Noriko's character. She hasn't gotten much screen time in this story due to her no longer being central to the plot, but I rather liked working on her little quirks, namely her calling out to Lumemon in frustration. Once I got to her, the scene practically began writing itself. A good chunk of it wasn't even planned (particularly the last bit where she stumbled across the site where Lumemon fought Norn) and went in a different direction from what my notes originally called for, and on the whole it worked out a lot better.

Much progression this chapter, and we'll be getting to the action soon. Until next chapter. :P

-Crazyeight

Edit: In the previous installment of this chapter, I had forgotten that a key point of Noriko's character was that she had taken on many of the capabilities of a digivice without needing a physical one to be present. I have since edited the chapter to reflect this. Kudos bars go to **Crystal shadow7 **and **Bookworm Gal** for pointing this out to me. :P

* * *

10


	43. Descending Storm

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.

Revival

Chapter: 43/ Descending Storm

"This," began Henry, running one hand on the ground, "is really weird."

In response to the boy's touch, a line of light drew over the dirt, and light flashed briefly. On Henry's head, Terriermon frowned.

"You can say that again."

"There looks like there's a border here," said Noriko, pointing around them. She knelt down and touched the ground alongside Henry. Light flared again and the two Tamers followed its course as it reached its peak along a jagged, circular edge around them before touching a tree, whereupon a line of static raced up its bark. "See that? Looks like the same thing happened to the tree also." Noriko turned her red eyes towards Henry, a puzzled expression on her face. "What do you think happened here?"

"It kind of looks like someone's trying to cover something up," mused Henry, rubbing his chin thoughtfully.

"I'll bet it was a battle," said Terriermon, hopping off Henry's head and causing another show of light from the ground as he landed.

"We don't know that Terriermon," frowned Henry.

"Oh, c'mon! What else could it be? I don't think a digimon would dig a hole just to hide it with _fake_ dirt!"

"What about Drimogemon or Digmon?" asked Noriko. "Aren't they digging type digimon?"

"They _do_ have drills," nodded Terriermon. "But what digimon hides a hole with fake dirt?" Terriermon looked over at his partner and folded his tiny arms over his chest. "Hey, Henry. You wanna digi-modify me? I'll dig this thing up and see what kind of buried treasure is here. You never know. We could be dealing with a Piratemon…"

"There's a Piratemon?" frowned Noriko. Henry shook his head.

"I think we'd better get a hold of someone at Hypnos and let them know what's going on."

"All right…fine," grumbled Terriermon. "Take all the fun out of it. Oh well. Guilmon is on his way here, so he can take care of the digging stuff. He loves digging holes."

Terriermon glanced at Henry while the boy looked at him, appearing as though he were expecting something else to emerge from the rabbit-dog digimon's mouth. Terriermon tilted his head to the side in confusion, but a moment later a smirk drew across his face.

"Henry… You've been partnered to me for _way_ too long."

"Hm?" Noriko raised a quizzical eye and looked at the two. "What do you mean? I don't get it."

"Um…yeah," replied Henry uncomfortably, taking out his cell phone. "I don't either."

"Nice save," Terriermon snickered. "But I guess it's true what Rika says. _Like Tamer, like digimon."_

"Not now, Terriermon."

The rabbit-dog digimon again snickered, a twinkle sparkling in his eye. "You know, it's not _every_ time that you can expect me to say something inappropriate…"

"Not _now,_ Terriermon," said Henry a little more firmly, at which the dog-bunny promptly closed his mouth and pretended to zip his lips shut. The glimmer in his eye did not disappear however, and he continued to look at Henry with knowing amusement.

"Oookay…" Noriko shook her head, not sure if she even _wanted_ to know what the two were talking about. "So…anyway," Noriko tapped the ground, and a line of light ran its length once more, "do you…do you guys think that this is a clue about Lumemon?"

Henry pressed his lips together into one thin line while Terriermon's mood became more somber.

"Well," began Terriermon carefully, "all of the groceries are here." He nodded towards the fallen bag and its contents. "But…you never know. It could just be coincidence. I'm pretty sure Lumemon isn't the only one who went out to get food today. Even food that happens to be the same as what was on your mother's grocery list."

Noriko wrapped her arms around her legs and hugged them close to her, looking uncertain. Seeing this, Terriermon nudged Henry with one ear and glared at him. Getting the message, Henry reached out and placed one hand on Noriko's shoulder.

"Don't…don't worry, Noriko. We'll find out what happened to Lumemon. I promise."

Noriko glanced at Henry gratefully. "Thanks," she said softly.

The two stared at each other a moment longer before Terriermon cleared his throat.

"Um…hate to ruin the moment, but shouldn't you be notifying Hypnos about this?"

"Yeah," Henry nodded, raising his cell phone and hitting the dial button. A moment later, a frown crossed his brow and he lowered the phone, hanging up and began dialing again.

"What's up?" asked Noriko.

"Not sure," he replied. "For some reason I'm not getting a dial tone."

"Did you recharge your battery this morning?" asked Terriermon sarcastically. Henry glowered at the rabbit-digimon and got up.

"Not funny. Maybe it has something to do with whatever's going on with the ground. It might be interfering with the signal. I'll see if I can get a better signal along the path."

With that, Henry walked out of the brush while Noriko and Terriermon watched him.

"Weird," she murmured, causing Terriermon's ears to perk up.

"What is?"

"Well, I was standing right here when I called you guys. I didn't have any problem then."

Terriermon shrugged. "Some phones just aren't as good."

"Aren't our phones all from Hypnos?"

Terriermon opened his mouth to reply, only to hesitate. It was true. Hypnos had given everyone cell phones, top of the line ones as well to make sure that everyone could be reached in an emergency.

"Nothing's perfect," Terriermon shrugged again. "And before you ask, I didn't accidently knock it over while horsing around in Henry's room."

Noriko scowled. "You sound just like my brother."

"Oh boy…"

A gust of wind blew over them, and Terriermon nearly fell to the side from its force. Noriko pulled her legs closer to her and blew at her hair, trying to get the strands out of her face.

"Pretty strong wind there," noted Terriermon, glancing up at the sky. "It's like Guilmon just let loose the granddaddy of all belches or something."

"Terriermon…"

"Momentai. I'm just kidding. Guilmon's like the father of burps. He's not quite that powerful, but he can knock you over with just the bad breath alone…"

"Terriermon!"

Terriermon giggled and bounced around Noriko, setting off a number of lightshows from the ground before landing on a normal piece of ground. Another gust of wind blew over them and this time he really did fall over.

"Oogh…"

"Serves you right," said Noriko, sticking her tongue out at him. "You shouldn't go talking about someone behind their back. Besides, you never know if they might be there."

"But that's why I do it," said Terriermon, getting back up. "The look on their faces would more than make up for it. Besides, people need to lighten up more. Anyway," Terriermon once more glanced up at the sky, "maybe we should consider getting inside somewhere. It looks like it's going to rain soon."

Noriko followed Terriermon's gaze. It was true. A swirl of dark, angry-looking clouds was beginning to form. Noriko felt herself shiver involuntarily and hug herself more tightly.

_I've never liked thunderstorms…_

"I still can't get anything," came Henry's voice as he returned from the path. "I've tried three times, but nothing. I even have enough bars to make a call, but for some reason I'm not connecting."

"Maybe the digital world's goofing with you," giggled Terriermon. Noriko shook her head.

"Somehow, I don't think the digital world would go out of its way to stop Henry from making a simple call."

"You're right. It only does that to Takato."

Another sharp gust of wind blew across the park. Trees swayed and groaned, causing the trio to look around worriedly.

"That's weird," noted Henry more to himself than to anyone else. "The weather report called for clear skies and a slight breeze."

"Hey. The weather guy can't be right all the time," said Terriermon. Henry shook his head and held out a hand to Noriko.

"Come on. We'd better see if we can find a place where I can call someone."

Noriko looked at Henry's hand for a moment before accepting it and getting to her feet. Giggling, Terriermon bounded over to the pair and leapt up onto Noriko's head.

"Momentai. We'll work this out. Just you wait and see."

Thunder boomed in the sky, and Noriko instinctively moved closer to Henry, still holding his hand in her own. She gave it a soft squeeze, grateful for the boy's presence.

_Thanks, Henry,_ she thought. Together the two began to head back towards the path…

They didn't get that far.

Another gust of wind, and thunder resounded upon the air once more. Noriko gasped as she felt something jolt through her body, causing her to stagger and nearly fall to the ground.

"Noriko!" exclaimed Henry in surprise, catching hold of her. "Are you all right?"

"I…I…" Noriko blinked. Just what had happened? For an instant, her head felt as though it were stuffed with cloth, making it difficult to think. Her own legs felt like lead weights. Shaking her head she pushed herself to her feet. "Yeah," she murmured. "I'm fine."

"You don't look it," said Terriermon worriedly.

"I'm just upset. I don't know why tha…"

"No," Terriermon crawled down to Noriko's shoulder and pointed downwards with one ear. "You _don't_ look fine."

Raising an eyebrow in confusion, Noriko followed Terriermon's ear down to her arm.

Noriko could have sworn that her heart stopped for a moment.

Raising her hand, her mouth opened as she realized that her arm had become translucent and blurry, unstable in the same manner as digimon when they were badly injured. Henry's hand reached out and took the limb into his fingers, testing it gently. She could still feel the pressure of his touch, but the transparency remained. And with it, an odd feeling that she could not describe. When Noriko next spoke, her words were full of fear about what she saw.

"H-Henry. Wha…wha…?"

Thunder boomed and lightning cracked across the sky. Noriko's legs trembled and she gave a cry, her legs going limp.

"Noriko!"

She could hear Henry's frantic voice, but it felt distant to her now.

"H-Heavy…" she gasped, pressing one hand to her chest. _"Heavy!"_

The air, it seemed to weigh her down for some reason. She could barely think…could barely do _anything._ She…

Lightning ripped across the sky, and Noriko felt as though a bomb had gone off inside her head. Her vision blacked out and all sensation beyond an incessant force beating down on her was cut off.

**…**

"Whoa," said Kuroda, blinking at his control panels.

"You got that too?" asked Tally from above him.

"The bizarre energy flash? Yeah. Good lord, what the hell was that?"

"I'm not registering anything so far," replied Tally, her hands moving across her control panel. She frowned beneath her visor and glanced at the two Monster Makers, Daisy and Dolphin. "Can you boost the power to the scanners?"

"Will do," said Dolphin, tipping the woman a salute before returning to his own control panel. His fingers raced across the keys before he turned back up towards Tally. "There. How's that? Any better?"

Tally nodded. "We're getting more incoming data, but I'm still not detecting any—wait. Hold on… I'm now picking up a disturbance emanating from the spatial warp between our world and the digital world. It's distorting our scanners, throwing them off. I can't get a clear lock. Dispatching Tracers now."

Kuroda turned his attention to the series of screens surrounding them. Digital representations of the Tracers flew across them, aiming towards a red orb representing the disturbance that Tally detected. The Tracers touched it but briefly before bursting into shards of data.

"Correct me if I'm wrong," Kuroda heard Daisy's voice from next to him. "But that looks like something bad happened."

"The disturbance is moving," said Tally, her tone strained now. "That was the only data that the Tracers could get to us."

Kuroda scowled. "I'd say that's more than enough confirmation that things are about to shit the bed. That thing, whatever it is, must be alive. And not only that, it's moving, and given our current track record of things moving around in the Warped Area I'd say it's looking to bio-emerge. Someone better contact the Tamers and Yamaki."

Before anyone could say or do anything further equipment suddenly sparked and lights went out all over the room.

_Shit…_

**…**

"So what do you think Noriko found?" asked Guilmon as he, Takato, and Rika made their way down the park paths, shepherded by Renamon's form as she appeared and disappeared in the tree branches behind them.

"For the last time," said Rika in an annoyed tone. "We'll find out when we get there."

"Ohhh…" Guilmon's ears wilted. "But I like it when people try to figure things out. It's like they're playing a guessing game."

Rika rolled her eyes. "Only you could make a game out of anything."

"Uh, actually I think you mean Calumon," said Takato. "Guilmon does have a serious side."

"Oh, yeah," Rika smirked, remembering the white-colored creampuff of a digimon. "I forgot how hard it is to beat Calumon at being carefree and…_cute."_ Rika made a distasteful face, but the smirk that remained on her face told the boy that she was clearly joking. "Well, my point still stands. We'll figure things out when we get there." Rika glanced up at the sky and scowled. "I just hope it's soon. Those clouds don't look friendly."

"Henry said it was along the path to the old hideout, so we should be seeing them soon," Takato chuckled. "Besides, it's not like a little rain will hurt us."

Rika cast a sardonic look at the boy. "Funny. I remember that one time where you were sitting down on those steps while we were waiting for the government to figure out what to do about our partners. Remember?"

"Yeah…I remember," nodded Takato. It had been a few months after their partners had returned from the digital world, and a bit before the Parasimon Invasion. They had managed to keep their partners out of sight up until another attack forced them out into the open. The return of the public's eye immediately brought out all the questions regarding digimon that had lain dormant, and the government became involved. It had been a very stressful time for all of them, as they weren't certain if their partners would end up being returned to the digital world.

_The weather on that last day certainly helped set the mood,_ he thought. Hearing this through their link, Rika nodded.

"You were just sitting there, out in the rain." Rika's smirk loosened as her expression softened. "You were pretty pathetic that day."

"I tried to keep him dry," said Guilmon. "But all I found for an umbrella was a big leaf."

"I'll give you points for trying at least. Anyway, you remembered what happened _after_, right?"

Reaching over, Rika nudged the boy in the ribs, causing him to stiffen up slightly and repress a yelp. Rika grinned at his ticklishness.

"How could I forget?" asked Takato, smiling back at the redheaded girl. "I was stuck in bed with a nasty cold for a week. I didn't think I'd ever hear the end of it from Mom about how it was what I got for standing out in the rain like that."

"Yeah, and we _all_ had to pitch in to help you feel better." Rika huffed and folded her arms beneath her breasts. "Stupid Gogglehead. You always had a hard time thinking things through properly. You never knew when to call it quits or get out of the rain."

"Aren't we past the point where we talk about my flaws?"

Rika eyed Takato playfully. "Why? It's one of the things that makes you interesting."

Takato blinked and scratched his chin in confusion. "…I'm not sure how to take that," he said finally.

"You could say thanks you know."

"How does that warrant a thanks?"

"Takatooo…" exclaimed Guilmon. "She complimented you. Shouldn't you be kissing her to say thanks?"

"Sounds to me like Dinoboy is quicker on the uptake than you," Rika said, continuing to grin. "But you can hold off on the kissing bit for later. We're kind of busy."

"Ohhh…" Guilmon moaned in disappointment. "But I wanted to watch."

Both Takato and Rika gave Guilmon an incredulous look before looking at each other.

"I sincerely hope he's not getting any_ future_ ideas," said Rika.

"Uh…I'm pretty sure he doesn't mean…wait." Takato tilted his head to one side. "What do you mean by that?"

Rika blushed and turned away, coughing lightly. "He's _your_ digimon, Takato. I suggest you make sure he's straightened out before anything bad happens."

"Wait. You're not saying…what I think you're…hey! Rika! Hey!"

Rika increased her pace as her blush increased in ferocity.

_Stupidstupidstupidstupid…_ she thought furiously to herself, ignoring Takato's please for her to answer him. _I _cannot_ believe that I just said that! What am I _thinking?_ I wonder if Takato's Goggleheadedness is contagious. Great. That's the last thing that I need._

_ "Well,"_ began an amused voice in her mind. _"That's what you get for choosing him to be your mate…"_

The intensity of Rika's blush increased tenfold. _Renamon? Tell me that I did _not_ just hear you say that!_

A soft chuckle was all she received from the other end of their connection. Rika ground her teeth together angrily.

_All right. Laugh it up, Renamon. I'll be sure to get you back for it later._

_ "As you wish," _chuckled Renamon before her presence receded. Behind her, Takato sighed and shook his head.

"I don't think I'll understand her," he muttered under his breath. Guilmon looked up at him with a tilted head.

"Takato. I don't think talking out loud is going to keep her from hearing you."

"I wasn't…oh, never mind." Takato shook his head in exasperation._ Why does it seem like the entire universe is out to play one big joke on me?_

As per usual, no answer came to him.

"Hey, Rika? I…"

Takato was immediately cut off by a loud boom of thunder. Unexpectedly, Takato felt his legs buckle slightly, as though some extreme force just tried to force him to the ground.

"Wha…?"

"You felt that too?" asked Rika, crouching, Renamon phasing into view next to her, her expression full of concern.

"Yeah," nodded Takato. "What _was_ that?"

"Whatever it was," mused Renamon. "It wasn't normal."

"How observant, Renamon," grumbled Rika sarcastically. "But that doesn't tell us anything."

"Maybe it's the storm?" asked Guilmon, pointing a claw towards the sky. "It's been giving me a funny feeling for a while, but I didn't feel that weird pushy-feeling until it thundered."

Takato frowned as he looked up at the sky. Rika looked at him.

"What do you say, Takato?" she asked.

"There was a storm when Guilmon was born," noted Takato, remembering that stormy day he became a Tamer. Digging into his pocket he brought out his cell phone and pulled up Hypnos' number. "We'd better call Yamaki and…" He halted as he stared at the screen.

"Takato?" prompted Rika, raising an eyebrow.

"My cell phone…" he pressed a button. "It…it's turned off. I can't get it to turn back on."

Rika pulled out her cell phone. She furrowed her brow, not liking what she saw.

"Looks like mine is out too."

"This isn't good," said Takato, glancing back up at the sky. "What could possibly be…?" Takato winced and covered his face with one arm as a flash of lightning tore across the sky. "Ah! Man, that was bright."

Another flash of light, and this time something in it caught his attention. Adjusting his arm, Takato narrowed his eyes, hoping to get a better look. One second. Two seconds. A crack of thunder. Four seconds. Five. Six. Seven.

_There!_

Light flared across the sky, illuminating the clouds that swirled within it. This time however, he saw something that stood out amongst them. It was difficult to see—almost transparent in its appearance, but he could just make out the outlines of what looked like a large pair of wings against the sky. The wings moved slightly, and another blast of thunder resounded upon the air.

They almost missed the sound of a tree cracking as a powerful gust of wind swept through the park.

"Rika! Look out!"

Grabbing hold of the red-haired Tamer, Renamon disappeared from view with her partner, narrowly avoiding the tree that collapsed to the ground. A moment later, the vulpine digimon reappeared and carefully released Rika.

"Are you all right?" she asked. Rika nodded, letting go of a breath that she didn't know she was holding. Before anything else could be said, more lightning cracked across the sky, cutting off further discussion.

**…**

Lights switched back on in the Hypnos control room as Dolphin wiped an arm across his brow.

"Backup systems are up and running," he said to Yamaki, who was standing beneath the control chairs. In their seats sat Tally and Riley, busily gathering all the information that they could as power fed into their scanners. "It's not pretty, but it's the best that we can do until we get the primary systems repaired."

"All right," said Yamaki, clicking his lighter closed. "Get me a status report."

"Working," replied Riley, her fingers flying over her control panel. "It definitely looks like a high level Wild One. But…"

"…but?" prompted Yamaki, frowning beneath his sunglasses.

"The readings are unlike anything I've ever seen before. I'm having difficulty telling anything for certain about them. The only thing that I can say for certain is that there are enormous power surges emanating from the central source."

"Confirmed," added Tally. "The energy readings are being broadcast in all areas around Shinjuku. They're causing massive amounts of shortages in the local power systems. We're also seeing some damage to network devices."

Tally's fingers paused and the woman frowned beneath her visor. She resumed typing, only to pause again.

"Um…I seem to be experiencing some interference on this end…"

"Same over here," said Riley. "I think the energy's wave crest is causing interference with our systems. I'm attempting to compensate now, but it looks like the waves are growing in strength. I don't think we'll be able to keep up with them."

"Do what you can," said Yamaki. "Kuroda. See what you can do to keep us going. Daisy, you help him. Tally. Do you have any more information that we can use?"

"Working." The sound of Tally's fingers typing filled the room for a moment before she spoke again. "All right. I've got a Tracer moving in. I'm going to increase visual resolution and hope that we can get something on it without getting too close. If it's a digimon and we can identify it visually then we can use the integrated digimon ID system to give us the rest of the information that we need."

Yamaki nodded. Integrating all the scans that the Tamers had made so far and applying its program to the vast database of digimon cards available was one of their more recent additions to their systems, courtesy of Janyu and Shibumi. They had yet to test it in action, as it was a recent addition however, but for now it was the best that they could hope for.

_No time like the present,_ thought Yamaki, flicking his lighter open.

One of the screens winked on, showing everyone the perspective of the Tracer as it zeroed in on its target. Yamaki narrowed his eyes beneath his sunglasses. The only sounds that could be heard were the typing of fingers on keyboards and Yamaki's lighter as it closed and opened repeatedly. The landscape was the same one that they had seen dozens upon dozens of times. More than they could count. It was a warped area with a green network resembling the insides of a computer, a distant, hazy, white horizon, and a sky filled with blue and a shifting, green-colored net. The visual sparked and blurred as something rocked it, but it stabilized.

"Where is the target?" asked Yamaki, tightening his hold on his lighter.

"It should be coming into view soon," replied Riley. "Attempting to adjust the data stream. There."

The image shifted, now revealing a distant field of burning sapphire and violet energy. The Tracer was rocked again, this time more violently, and the visual briefly dissolved into static before stabilizing again.

"It doesn't look like it likes being stared at," noted Kuroda, looking up from his post.

"There's a definite reaction to our scans," said Riley. "I'm going to back us off a bit. It looks like we'll be relying entirely on visuals for this one."

"Can we get closer?"

"Negative," said Tally. "The power field that's being projected by the target has great reach. The Tracer is already at the limit of where it can safely operate. I'm attempting to readjust the data stream for better resolution."

The image shifted once more, and the field of energy collapsed into a figure with massive, burning wings flapping behind it. Gradually the image began to clear until…

"Getting incoming data from the ID system. Attempting to…" Tally screamed in surprise as her control panel sparked and its lights went out completely.

"Backup systems failing!" exclaimed Kuroda. "Sweet gods! That thing is putting out…oh…oh my God! Oh swear…"

With that, the screens all around the control room exploded, sending shards of glass flying in all directions.

**…**

Suzie lay in her bed, sheets pulled up to her chin while she attempted to doze. The crash of thunder outside made that difficult however, even with the comfort of her partner curled up next to her. For as long as she could remember, she had not liked loud noises. Earth Quakes had especially been the one thing she hated the most, and during such events it was one of the few occasions that she hated living in the apartment that they called home. It was a constant reminder of how far off the ground they were, and the knowledge that the building was built to withstand such natural occurrences did little to comfort her.

The young girl shifted in her bed and turned onto her side so that she was looking at her digital clock. It was closing in on nine o'clock.

_I think the worst part about this, is that Henry would be right to leave me behind this one time,_ she thought to herself. _I hate thunderstorms. I'd be too worried about getting hit by a lightning bolt to keep an eye out for digimon._ Suzie groaned mentally and shifted again back to her original sleeping position. She was annoyed. There was no question about it. It felt as though the world was conspiring to keep her from being a Tamer. Her dealings with Atsuo cast doubt upon her by the others, Henry was always overprotective of her, and to top it all off the weather was going out of its way to prey upon her fears. The recent power outage ensured that she couldn't just forget about her troubles and dive into whatever she chose to distract herself with.

If there was a joke in this for her, she did not see it.

Suzie instinctively shut her eyes when she heard her bedroom door open. She felt the soft glow of her mother's candlelight as it cast its warm luminosity through her room. She waited, breathing in and out slowly and evenly. After a few moments, her mother closed the door and began to move down the hall. She could hear the voices of her mother speaking softly to her sister, Jaarin. Suzie let go a long, low sigh and tried to nestle deeper into her pillow. She wanted this evening to be over already. She wanted sunlight. She wanted the holiday of Golden Week that lay just around the corner. She felt that if she could just experience the joy of the holiday, she could forget all of her troubles.

Even if the forgetting was only temporary. Alas, time was a cruel master, and to felt to Suzie that it was deliberately slowing things down, all because she wanted something nice to happen sooner.

_If I could just fall asleep faster…_ Suzie sighed and pulled her blanket all the more tightly around her. She looked at Lopmon, who was lying on the ground, her ears wrapped around her body to keep her warm. _How can she do that and make it look so easy?_ Suzie wondered, smiling at her partner. The thunder did not seem to bother the Rookie digimon in the least.

_ I guess, when you're a digimon that's used to battling almost every day of your life, trying to stay alive, you learn to know when you're in danger, and when you aren't._

A small smile graced the girl's face as she took comfort from that thought. Slowly, as she watched Lopmon's sleeping form, the girl's eyes drooped shut. Time passed and her breathing slowed, becoming more even. Thunder cracked, but she did not respond.

Time passed quietly in silence, broken only by the flash of lightning and rumble of thunder. Finally, lightning illuminated the room briefly, revealing a small figure shrouded in dark smoke, hovering directly over Suzie's bed.

_"Finally,"_ Bakumon whispered as he got to work.

**…**

A/N: Crazy week is a crazy week. I was worried that I wouldn't have a chance to get this chapter out until next week, so I was fortunate that things calmed down enough for me get some work done. Things are still rather hectic though, so an update next week might be unlikely. My apologies in advance to all of my readers.

Now, about this chapter. The scene that Rika describes about Takato sitting out in the middle of the rain (with Guilmon using a leaf as an umbrella) is loosely based off the Tamer ending 'My Tomorrow'. It provides some more history for the Tamers and I thought it worked well. There's a bit more development as the 'mysterious entity' encroaches upon the Tamers, and its effects are being felt before it even gets there. And it's all just a taste of what's to come. ;P

'Till next chapter.

-Crazyeight

10


	44. Impact

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.

Revival

Chapter: 44/ Impact

Kazu sat on his bed, his fingers manipulating his game controller while outside his bedroom window, Guardromon watched with worried interest. The interest came, as it did, with all things related to his partner. The boy was, in his opinion, the personification of what it meant to be a hero. While Kazu would falter at times, he remained resolute and pressed onwards despite his failures.

The worry however, came from multiple sources, but for the time being the vast majority of it came from the storm that tore across the skies of Shinjuku.

"Bless my bolts," mused Guardromon, glancing upwards as a harsh wind blew over him. Thunder cracked, and at it, Kazu pressed the pause button of his game and looked over at the android digimon.

"Looks like we'd better get you into the shed Guardromon," he said, brushing back his messy hair. Guardromon nodded, not arguing. Although he disliked being made to separate from his partner's main living areas, there was nothing that could be done about it. He was far too massive and destructive to allow inside the house. His just walking alone would damage the floors, and that was something Kazu's mother absolutely refused to have happen.

_It's bad enough that I ruined her garden,_ commiserated Guardromon as he made his way around the house and waited in front of a rather roughly built building consisting of plywood and boards nailed together to form rudimentary walls and a roof. The android regarded it approvingly despite the appearance. It was the first thing that Kazu built with his own hands, and he continued to improve upon it whenever he had enough money set aside to do so—something that his job at the Matsuki bakery had helped with tremendously.

The door to the Shiota home slammed shut as Kazu ran outside to join him, shrugging on a brown jacket in the process. He dug out the key to the building's lock and quickly opened it, ushering in his partner.

"Sorry about this, Guardromon," apologized Kazu, scratching the back of his head in embarrassment. Guardromon's mechanical eyes softened.

_He's always ashamed of this place,_ thought Guardromon.

"No need to apologize, Kazu," he said, his voice filled with gratitude. "I have a roof over my head to keep me out of storms. That is enough for me."

"Yeah…I know. But it still feels like I'm keeping you in a dog house or something," Kazu grumbled, shifting his feet uncomfortably. "That kind of thing may be good for Guilmon, but last I checked you weren't a four to five foot dinosaur with a habit of burying his food."

"Of course not," replied Guardromon. "I don't eat after all."

Kazu blinked, confused for a moment before he realized that his partner was making a joke.

"Oh, ha-ha," laughed Kazu dryly. "Maybe I should get you a collar and a chain now. Feed you batteries." Kazu frowned. "You know, now that I think about it, I have no idea where you get your power from. What's up with that?"

"My battery is a mixture of nuclear fusion cells coupled with solar power units. In addition, I can absorb energy from other sources, such as the interaction between Earth's electromagnetic field with the spatial disturbances of the digital world."

Kazu blinked again in confusion.

"I only caught that bit about nuclear fusion. Uh…somehow I don't think that's very safe, especially when you think about what we do for a living."

"I assure you Kazu that it is very safe. As the power employed is made up of digital information, in the event of catastrophic failure, I can introduce an invasive program that deletes all data in my power systems, including the nuclear fusion batteries. It would be as though they never existed, so there would be no chance of there being an 'accident'. Of course, as the data is constantly being overwritten, there is little chance of there being an accident, and any potential harmful effects would be non-existent." In a show of confidence, Guardromon banged his fist against his armored chest. Kazu grinned nervously.

_Somehow I get the feeling that I was better off just not knowing…_

"I'll take your word for it," he laughed nervously. Silence then fell between the two friends as thunder boomed outside, and Kazu's face became distant and contemplative.

_Something has been on his mind for a while now,_ thought Guardromon, frowning slightly. _I've tried to talk to him, but he always keeps it to himself and never says anything._

The androids finger twitched slightly. He wanted to break the silence and help his partner, but if his Tamer didn't want to be helped, then what could he do?

_Humans,_ he thought for what had to be the thousandth time, _are so strange…_

Another boom of thunder and the shed's walls rocked slightly.

"My word," observed Guardromon. "This storm is unusually strong for the season. My sensors are picking up unusual disruptions in the atmosphere."

"The weather's always been wacky," noted Kazu. "Funny. I think Henry said something about how it's been even weirder ever since the battle with the D-Reaper, but I've never noticed. Well, not until now anyway."

Kazu glanced outside. The clouds were roiling in the sky, spinning, with lightning crackling inside of them. Green light shone from within the clouds as they spun.

"Jeez…what the heck is going on?" he wondered aloud. "Are we going to be getting a hurricane? Or a mess of tornadoes?"

"My sensors can't quite make heads or tails of it either," added Guardromon. "All I can tell for certain is that there are unusual disruptions in the atmosphere." Guardromon paused. "It's not quite unlike what happens during a bio-emergence…"

"What?" Kazu whirled about, his eyes widening. "Are you serious? We're about to get a storm from the _digital world_ dropped in our backyard?"

"I don't have enough data to confirm or deny that assessment," said Guardromon. "But it is possible that the digital world is affecting the barriers in some manner, and this is just a manifestation of its effects. But as I said, I don't have enough data to confirm this. It could just be that the weather is just being strange. It would not be the first time that it has done something outside of the weatherman's predictions."

"Hmmm…" Kazu glanced outside again. "I don't suppose you could pick up a weather report or something, could you? I…"

"KAZUUU!" Came the shout of his mother's voice from the house. His shoulders sagging a little, the boy gave an apologetic look to his partner.

"Hang on a second buddy. I'll be right back."

Guardromon nodded, and with that, the teenage boy raced out of the shed and over towards the house where his mother was waiting for him on the back porch, her arms folded over her chest and an angry expression on her face.

"Hey, Mom. What's going on?"

"We're going into the basement for shelter," said Mrs. Shiota, tossing her thumb over her shoulder. "The news is talking about the storm that's going on, and they're issuing an advisory warning. It's looking to be pretty bad."

"Eh?" Kazu raised an eyebrow. "Was there a hurricane that we didn't know about or something?"

"Just get inside and bring your partner in with you!" demanded the woman, shouting to be heard over the sudden gust of wind that blasted them. "That little shack of yours isn't going to hold up under this! God forbid that you end up losing the only thing that makes you a productive member of society and…"

All at once, the wind died down, leaving the two stunned at the sudden silence that filled the air. Frowning, Kazu looked up at the sky. The clouds still roiled above them, looking for all the world as though they were angry and about ready to let loose upon the unsuspecting citizens, but for the moment, nothing was happening. It was as though the storm were holding its breath.

_Are we in the eye of the storm or something?_ Kazu wondered. Then, no sooner had he finished that thought, an earth-shattering blast came crashing out of the sky and Kazu found himself being knocked to the ground. The sound of explosions filled the air as he felt great concussive forces bearing down upon him, nearly causing him to black out.

After what felt like an eternity, the force let up and Kazu gasped. Lurching onto his knees he panted and looked around. His mother was lying on the ground, groans escaping from her lips.

"Mom," wheezed Kazu, reaching over and shaking her lightly. "You…you okay?"

"Ugh…" the woman's eyes fluttered open. "Wha th' hell was thad…?" she slurred. Kazu shook his head.

"Dunno. If that was thunder, it was the weirdest thunder I ever heard. Guardromon!" Looking over his shoulder, the boy's face paled as he saw that the shed he built had completely collapsed on his partner. "Guardromon!" Surging to his feet, the boy nearly collapsed again as dizziness seized him. Holding steadily he rushed over to the shed and began to pull upon the wood, only to stop as Guardromon began to push outwards, shrugging off the shed with ease.

"Oh dear," mourned Guardromon. "It would appear that we'll have to build all over again."

"We'll make it better buddy," said Kazu, breathing a sigh of relief. "You feelin' okay?"

"I am built well enough to resist collapses…"

"Yeah, I know that," interrupted Kazu. "I was referring to whatever that freak blast of thunder was. There's no way that was anything natural."

"Indeed. My sensors registered a severe disruption in the Ionosphere and…" Guardromon suddenly clenched his eyes shut as a loud mechanical squawk emerged from his voice box. Electric sparks appeared all over his body and he staggered heavily on his feet, trying to maintain his balance.

"Guardromon!" shouted Kazu, reaching out for his partner before he remembered the electricity surrounding him. "What's going on?"

Kazu didn't receive an answer as Guardromon toppled to the ground with a heavy crash.

_What the heck is going on?_

**…**

"Ohhh…" groaned Guilmon, his eyes rolling in their sockets. "That wasn't fun. Takatomon? Can you stop the world please? I would like to get off now…"

"Ugh…" Takato rubbed his forehead as he rolled over onto his back. "I think…I think it's coming to a stop now, Guilmon." Sitting up, Takato shook his head. "Man…what the heck was that?"

"I don't know," replied Renamon as she and Rika got to their feet. "But that was _definitely_ no ordinary thunderclap."

"How observant, Renamon," mulled Rika sarcastically, still brushing off the effects of the pressure. "Thunder doesn't normally crush you to the ground after all."

"We'd better contact Hypnos and ask them what's going on," said Takato, pulling out his cell phone. "I'll bet that something's going on in the digital world and…" Takato scowled and tapped the screen of his phone. "Ohhh…_man!_ The screens cracked! It's ruined!"

"Knock it off, Takato," said Rika, pulling out her own cell phone. She scowled. "Great, mine's toast too."

"We'll need to see if any of the payphones still work," said Takato. "I…Guilmon!"

"Renamon!"

The two Tamers looked at their partners in utter shock as their bodies began to blur and pixilated. Renamon collapsed to the ground, one paw clutching at her chest while Guilmon howled.

"What's going on?" asked Rika, grabbing hold of her partner by the shoulders. "Renamon! Are you okay? Renamon!"

"I…I…It feels…R-Rika!" The vulpine digimon clenched her teeth together, trying to prevent herself from crying out.

"Takato…it…it hurts…" groaned Guilmon, his body trembling as it phased in and out of view.

"Guilmon!" Takato desperately looked at his friend. _What's going on? _Takato shook his head. It was plainly clear what was going on, even if he didn't understand the how or why of it. What mattered instead was how did he stop it? Unfortunately for him, he was short on ideas. The only things that he had that could potentially help were himself, his cards, and…

_ That's it!_

Pulling out his digivice, Takato looked at it with a hard expression.

_You guys are supposed to help our friends,_ he thought, an idea born from desperation quickly forming in his mind. _If that's true, then please! Help us now!_

"BIOMERGE ACTIVATE!" Takato shouted, raising his D-Arc over his head. Light exploded from his digivice and enveloped himself and Guilmon, merging the two together. Guilmon's body began to warp and grow as Takato sunk into him. White armor with red trim replaced crimson scales as Guilmon's snout transformed into a visor. A long, flowing cape of scarlet billowed out behind him as he rose to his feet, completing his transformation.

**"Guilmon, biomerge tooo…Gallantmon!"**

The light died down and within his orange glowing data sphere, Takato opened his eyes. He could feel relief flooding Guilmon's body as whatever had been trying to delete him immediately backed away. He could still feel the outside pressure of the force clashing with his armor, but it was barely there. Almost negligible except perhaps as a light itch.

_"Rika!"_ Takato exclaimed, turning around towards his two friends. _"You've got to bio-!"_

"BIOMERGE ACTIVATE!" Shouted Rika, her words cutting across Takato's before he even had a chance to finish. Within seconds, Renamon's body warped, becoming more humanoid with long, flowing white hair materializing behind her. A fox-shaped facemask covered her face as a black bodysuit covered by golden armor appeared over her body. A long staff with a series of rings clustered at its tip took its place within her hand, and she spun it around her body in rapid, flourishing arcs, while she completed her transformation.

**"Renamon, biomerge tooo…Sakuyamon!"**

Sakuyamon looked over towards and smiled at him.

_"Jeez Takato,"_ she said to him in a playful, scolding voice. _"You really need to take it easy there. You got me going before I even realized what was happening."_

_ "Uh…" _Takato blinked within his data sphere, uncertain as to what she was talking about. _"Okay. Um…are you guys all right?"_

_ "We are now," _nodded Sakuyamon, striding forward and looking up at the sky. "It looks as though whatever was going on," the shaman priestess continued in the two voices of Rika and Renamon, "it is ineffective against our Mega forms."

"Well that's a good thing," said Gallantmon, Guilmon and Takato's voices working smoothly as one. "But that still doesn't tell us what's going on."

_"At least we have some breathing room to figure out what's going on,"_ said Rika's voice from Sakuyamon. _"Now let's get to it."_

"Right," answered Gallantmon. "The question is though…where do we begin?"

As though in answer to his question, the towering form of the emerald war machine, MegaGargomon, rose out of the park off to their side, electricity crackling all over his body.

"I'd say that's as good a place as any," replied Sakuyamon.

Taking to the air, the two Megas flew over to their giant companion.

**…**

Within his emerald data sphere, Henry gritted his teeth.

_"And here…I thought we would at least have a chance against whatever's going on,"_ he gasped.

_"Hey,"_ said Terriermon, giving a forced chuckle that was ruined by the twinge of pain that Henry could feel flowing through his friend. _"It's a lot better than being deleted, right? This doesn't feel as bad as it did a second ago."_

"Henry!"

Turning MegaGargomon's head upwards, Henry and Terriermon's eyes fell upon the two figures of Gallantmon and Sakuyamon as they approached him.

_"Hey guys! Are you okay?"_

"We were just about to ask you the same thing," said Sakuyamon as they came to a halt. "You don't look so good."

_"_Well, we've felt better," gasped MegaGargomon in Henry and Terriermon's voices. The massive android shuddered and clutched at his armored chest, continuing on in Terriermon's voice. _"Whatever's going on, it's messing up our electronics. We're extremely lucky that our digivice still worked."_

_ "Yeah,"_ rasped Henry. _"It looks like our Mega forms are capable of holding off whatever's affecting us. For some reason though, we're still being affected. But…"_ MegaGargomon raised one arm and flexed his massive fingers. The pain was gradually starting to decrease. _"…it's getting better."_

_ "Can't say the same about Noriko though…"_ mooted Terriermon.

"Is she all right?" asked Gallantmon worriedly. MegaGargomon shook his head.

_"Whatever hit us knocked her out cold,"_ replied Terriermon. _"She's dead in the water…well, on the ground. We couldn't get her to say or do anything after she collapsed. The only thing she said was 'it's heavy' right before that last big thunder blast smacked us for a loop."_

"Great," grimaced Gallantmon. "So how are we supposed to fight a storm? Anyone got any ideas?"

"I'll try something," said Sakuyamon, raising her staff. Slashing it to the side, violet streaks of energy washed the park around them, engulfing it in a blur of gently falling Sakura petals.

"Gentle fall, resting light," intoned Sakuyamon as she twirled her staff through the air. "Autumn Leaves. Come rest."

Sakuyamon made one final slash through the air with her staff and golden light shimmered around her body. The golden light expanded outwards, reaching towards the dark clouds as the violet light below settled towards the ground. A sense of peace and calm settled over the city, and the electrical sparks surrounding MegaGargomon began to stop. Within his data sphere, Takato smiled, enjoying the warm feeling that flooded the air around him.

_Man,_ he thought. _This…this feels so nice. It's like how I felt when I saw Guilmon after he came back from the digital world. It's like…it's like…peace. It feels like completion…_

Suddenly the sensation of calm paused as the light trembled. Lightning crashed in the clouds, clashing with Sakuyamon's light. Dark rays stabbed downwards, impacting the earth with tremendous force and ripping holes in its surface. Sakuyamon bit her lip and clenched her staff all the more tightly. As though in response, the light shook and increased in intensity. More dark rays fell from the clouds and lightning flashed. A blue, wing-like formation appeared in the sky, barely visible and the wind surged against the Tamers. Sakuyamon pressed one hand tightly against her mask. A small trickle of blood fell from her lip where she was biting, and she redoubled her efforts, beginning to chant a new spell to reinforce the current one.

She didn't make it.

A bolt of lightning shot out from the sky as blue wings flared around it and impacted with Sakuyamon's body. The shaman priestess screamed in pain as the electricity stabbed into her body, causing every inch of her to go rigid. Her staff fell from her hand as her fingers uncurled.

_"Sakuyamon!"_ shouted Gallantmon, charging forward. A massive shield with a blue crystal imbedded in its center morphed from one hand and he shoved it in front of Sakuyamon while using his free hand to grab hold of her. Sakuyamon groaned as her body went limp, smoke rising from her.

_She's alive!_ Takato thought, breathing a sigh of relief as he tested the waters of their link. _She'll make it. _

_ "T-Takato…?"_ came Rika's exhausted question as she raised one hand limply. _"Jeez…w-what the heck was that?"_

Before Gallantmon could even begin to respond, another column of dark light shot out from the sky and struck his shield, causing several cracks to appear along the metal and the center gem. The Royal Knight grunted as pain erupted the length of his arm.

_"Ahhh!"_ he shouted, tightening his grip on Rika's body. _"What the…?"_

Turning his head, Gallantmon had just enough time to register the ground rushing towards them before smashing into it, causing the park's path and several trees to erupt into the air in response.

**…**

_"Takato! Rika!"_ exclaimed Henry as he saw them go crashing into the park below. He lurched forward, getting ready to go see if they were all right when Terriermon's voice suddenly came forward.

_"Uh…Henry? We've got trouble…"_

_ "Wha…?"_

**"Algol's Flame!"**

That was all Henry heard when a massive ball of fire struck him full in the face, sending the gargantuan Mega falling full-tilt to the ground behind him.

**…**

Rain began to fall to the ground now, and the rain caused it to whip around, smashing it against Crusadermon's armored form as she rushed to the battle site, the tiny form of MarineAngemon tucked carefully in the nook of her left arm.

"MegaGargomon's down," the Royal Knight spoke. "Both Gallantmon and Sakuyamon are also down. I can't see them just yet."

A second later, Ayaka's voice filled her mind as the copper-haired girl spoke to her via her digivice.

_"Can you tell what hit them? What's going on?"_

"Someone attacked them." Crusadermon frowned beneath her helm, surveying the city around them. "Judging by the flight path, I would say that the attack came from somewhere in the city rather than the park. Possibly from one of the residential areas, but I can't say for sure."

_"Kenta says that his digivice is picking up something extremely powerful nearby, but he can't get a definite position. Something about its strength seems to be mucking up the scanners."_

"I see." Crusadermon nodded, not liking what that entailed. She had felt the force behind the pressure that had knocked Kenta and Ayaka to the ground. She and MarineAngemon had been largely unaffected, but even so she could still feel it through her armor. Not a good sign.

_At the very least, this means that whatever is out there is generating enough energy to interfere with whatever is around it. High level digimon are capable of resisting it, it seems…_ Crusadermon, for the first time that she could remember, felt a twinge of sweat appear upon her face._ There are some digimon capable of doing this. In some cases, it is caused by digimon capable of broadcasting information or energy waves like an antenna._ _In other cases however—most cases—such things are caused by digimon with a dangerously high and uncontrollable amount of power. _

Crusadermon paused before continuing.

_And in even fewer cases, there are digimon who are so high of a level, that they're existence is beyond that of other digimon. Just by existing, they threaten whatever is around them._

Crusadermon tightened her grip around MarineAngemon as she felt a twinge of anxiety in her heart. MarineAngemon looked up at her with a worried expression.

"Pih?"

"I'm all right, MarineAngemon," she soothed. "You just make sure that you stay in the rear and watch me."

_"Right,"_ said Ayaka's voice. _"We'll follow the usual plan. You fight and MarineAngemon provides support and interference."_

An intense flash of light tore across the sky and great wings of blue fire suddenly appeared in the air before retreating downwards into the city beneath a column of darkness. Crusadermon swallowed.

"You'd better get a plan B in action," said Crusadermon. "I have a feeling this is going to be a bad one."

**…**

_"Ughhh…"_ groaned Henry from within his data sphere. _"Did anyone get the name of the Trailmon that hit me…?"_

_ "Bravo Henry,"_ moaned Terriermon from the darkness surrounding the boy. _"You just made a joke even worse than me. Noriko will be charmed."_

_ "Noriko!"_

Pushing their Mega form up, Henry urgently activated MegaGargomon's sensors and scanned the surrounding area. He breathed a sigh of relief when he quickly found her, unharmed.

_She's still unconscious though,_ thought Henry. _"Terriermon. We've got to get her out of here. This place is going to turn into a battlefield soon."_

_ "Great idea, but how do we do that? I can't reverse digivolve without being pixilated and Takato and Rika got mowed down like pins against a bowling ball."_

"Who's saying we were taken down easily?"

Bushes were brushed away as a disheveled Gallantmon and Sakuyamon stepped into view. Tears and cracks riddled their bodies and the two of them looked a little unsteady on their feet, but they were standing.

_"Wow,"_ boomed Terriermon's voice from MegaGargomon's mouth. _"If I didn't know any better I'd say you two just went and did the serious nasty with each other…"_

_ "Terriermon!"_

"Come on you guys," said Gallantmon, rolling his eyes as he placed a hand on Sakuyamon's shoulder. "We've got work to do."

_"How obvious, Takato,"_ snorted Rika's voice, brushing the knight's hand off her shoulder guard. "And we can't afford to play favorites in this if what hit us means anything." Sakuyamon looked up at MegaGargomon. "I'll take care of Noriko while the two of you head out and check in on the situation. The two of you have the best armor and like you said Henry, you can't dedigivolve without putting yourself at risk of being taken out."

Sakuyamon turned towards Gallantmon and grimaced at the state of his armor and shield.

"I'm going to lend you some of my power. Otherwise, you're just going to get creamed out there. I'll help you with some of the more complex stuff, but don't expect to be firing off spells by singing haiku or anything."

_"He'd probably break a window doing that anyway,"_ muttered Terriermon's voice sarcastically.

_"Terriermon…"_

"Let's just get a move on," said Gallantmon, shaking his head in exasperation while hefting his shield. Rika reached out and placed one hand on its gem and white power flowed between them. The cracks along Gallantmon's shield vanished wherever the light touched, and repeated the repair as it moved through Gallantmon's body. Finished, Sakuyamon removed her hand and took a step back.

"Thanks Sakuyamon," said Gallantmon, closing his eyes briefly to get used to the rush of power flowing through him.

_"Hey!"_ exclaimed Terriermon. "What about us? We could use some fixer-up magic here too you know!"

_"Unfortunately," _said Renamon's voice from Sakuyamon with a shake of her head, _"this only works because of the connection Rika and Takato share with each other. At the same time, we don't have much strength to spare. Not after that hit we took."_

_ "Guess we'll just have to rough it, Terriermon," _said Henry as he pushed MegaGargomon to his feet, taking care to not step on Noriko while he did so.

_"Easy for you to say. If what I'm sensing means anything, we're literally going to have it rough! Surviving this is going to be a mean feat Henry!"_

"I'll try to get back to you guys as soon as I can," said Sakuyamon. A violet aura surrounded one gloved hand and a second later Noriko's body began to rise out of the brush and float towards her. "Just get down there!"

A circular hand-guard materialized around Gallantmon's free hand and electrical energy surged out of it, forming a lance. He saluted his shaman friend.

"Will do!"

Sakuyamon frowned at the knight as she took Noriko into her arms.

"And stay alive! All of you!"

And with that, Sakuyamon leapt into the air with her charge, leaving the two Megas to watch her before looking at each other.

_"Why'd she say it like that?"_ asked Terriermon. _"I would have thought that she meant all of us anyway."_

Neither of the Tamers nor Guilmon had anything further to say on the matter, and instead took to the air, steeling themselves for the battle that lay ahead.

**…**

Blazing azure wings flapped in the storm as steam rose from them, evaporating the rain the instant it came into close proximity to their heat. Blue claws, crystal-like in appearance led into arms covered in a seething darkness that writhed around the spiked wristbands that separated them. Great horns arched up from a demonic face with glowing blue eyes. It surveyed the city around it as barely visible waves billowed from out its body, taking in the sight. The creature snorted and black smoke exited its nose. It could sense digimon in the city, and the beast flexed its claws in response. A light gust of wind blew over the creature and azure flames gathered around the tips of its claws before they tightened into a fist.

"Impossible…" breathed a voice from next to the creature. It turned and found the pink-armored form of Crusadermon hovering in the air next to it, a razor-sharp, yellow ribbon straining against thin air as she strove to bring it down upon it. Waves of barely visible force pulsated around the ribbon and the creature turned to face Crusadermon fully. A low, guttural growl reminiscent of a chortle emerged from its throat and it raised one fist towards her. The warp around Crusadermon's ribbon intensified suddenly and it burst into flames, causing the knight to give a cry of surprised alarm.

Blue fire erupted around the creature's fist before it surged forward, slamming home into Crusadermon's face. Her helm splintered as she was suddenly catapulted backwards, smashing into a building clear across the street before emerging from its back. Debris followed her flight path as she continued onwards into another building where she was finally consumed in a cloud of smoke and dust.

Blue light glimmered in the beast's eyes as dark laughter bordering on a growl continued to emerge from its throat triumphantly.

**...**

A/N: The chaos of my week has more or less ended…and earlier than expected as I was able to get some writing done this week. There remains only a few things to do before my life can settle back into something resembling normalcy, but the worse is behind me. Well, except for the cold that inexplicably decided to smack me down, but I'm not letting that stop me.

This chapter is all about bringing the villain into this world, while simultaneously touching on one or two extra characters that needed to be touched on. The battle is only beginning and before things are over, much of the proverbial landscape will be altered.

And with that ominous statement, see you all next chapter. :D

-Crazyeight

10


	45. Trial by Fire

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.

Revival

Chapter: 45/ Trial by Fire

"Impmon!" exclaimed Ai as the diminutive digimon was suddenly enveloped in a flash of light. Within moments, Impmon's body lengthened, becoming more lean and garbed with dark leather and metal spikes. Now fully evolved he opened all three of his blood-red eyes and stood up, his rat-like tail whipping at the air in irritation.

"I'm okay, kids," he said, narrowing all three of his eyes and glancing out the window.

"Why'd you digivolve to your Mega form?" asked Mako, stepping out from behind his sister. Before Beelzemon could even the door to their room burst open and in walked the children's' father, a frantic expression on his face.

"What are you kids still doing here?" he demanded. "We've got to get to shelter quickly and…" The adult's eye paused as he finally noticed the change in Impmon's form.

"But Daaad!" began Mako. "Impmon digivolved. He just fell down, looking like he was hurting and then he digivolved."

"Yeah," nodded Ai, supporting her brother. "He wouldn't do that unless there was a reason too."

Their father looked back and forth between his children and the towering Demon Lord. "We still have to get to shelter," he affirmed.

"You kids go with your folks," said Beelzemon, kneeling down and patting the two kids on their shoulders. "I think there's somethin' more goin' on with this storm than the weather man's tellin' us so I'm going to take a look."

Mako glanced over at his sister. "The weather man's always wrong anyway."

"Mmm…" Ai pursed her lips together, looking uncertain. "But…Beelzemon…"

"Look kids," said their father, taking on a more comforting voice as he took hold of the two by the shoulders. "Impmon…_Beelzemon_ will be fine. But right now, we've got to get down to shelter. Let's do that while he takes care of his superhero business, okay? He can't fight properly if he has to worry about us, right?"

"Your dad's right," added Beelzemon. "Don't worry kids. Just let me take care of everything. I'll be counting on you to use your digivice to back me up if things get hairy, and you need to be safe for that, got it?"

"O-Okay," conceded Ai while her brother nodded.

"Go kick butt, Beelzemon!" said the boy, clenching his fists together. "We'll make it so that you don't have to worry about anything!"

"That's the spirit." Beelzemon grinned at his Tamers and clapped them on the shoulders. "Don't give your folks any trouble while I'm gone."

"Right," said Mako proudly. "That's your job."

Beelzemon chuckled inwardly, repressing a twitch from his third eye. _That's not exactly somethin' you say in front of your dad but…eh. Whatever._ Ruffling the hair of his partners he turned and vanished from view. Within seconds he was outside in the pouring rain, lightning flashing above him. He looked up at the sky, frowning at it.

_This storm ain't natural,_ he thought to himself before a low, mechanical growl caught his attention. Looking down, he saw his motorcycle, Behemoth, waiting for him. Its engine growled impatiently, eager to be on the move.

"Yeah, yeah," he said as he climbed aboard. "Hold your horses, pal. If I know those other guys, the fight's not going to be over when we get there. They're probably tripping over themselves right now."

The bike shuddered slightly, as though laughing at Beelzemon's words. Seconds later they were off, Behemoth letting out a loud roar as it surged forward, eager to join the battle that they both knew was already raging.

Neither noticed the dark shape that appeared on the roof across the street.

**…**

"Crusadermon?" Ayaka's eyes widened as she saw nothing but static rising from the holographic image from her digivice. _"Crusadermon!"_

"Hang on," said Kenta, pulling out his digivice and activating it. "MarineAngemon's on his way there." The holographic circle rose and showed him his partner's view of the battlefield. A second later, he breathed a sigh of relief. "He's found her! She…she looks to be in pretty bad shape, but she's still with us."

"But…but why can't I…?" began Ayaka before the image on her digivice's holo-screen cleared. The image was still rather fuzzy and distorted, but it was no longer dominated by the static from earlier. As she watched, Crusadermon's hand rose up and pressed against her face. Ayaka winced, feeling a touch of pain go through her via their connection.

"Crusadermon," she said, bringing the D-Arc closer to her mouth. "Are you there? Are you okay?"

_"Y…Yes…"_ breathed the voice of Crusadermon exhaustedly. _"The digimon…such power. I had…I had no idea…"_

"Deep breaths, Crusadermon. MarineAngemon's on his way to help you so you'll have to sit tight. Just hang in there, okay?"

Ayaka allowed a small smile to grace her lips as the perspective on her digivice shifted up and down, indicating that the Mega was nodding in agreement.

_"Ayaka…that digimon…"_ The Royal Knight paused to take a deep breath to settle herself. _"…I…I think we'll have to withdraw and contact Hypnos."_

That caused Ayaka to blink in surprise._ Withdraw? Crusadermon never suggested that before._

She didn't even have to look at Kenta to know that he was thinking the same thing.

"Crusadermon? What's going on?"A faint trickle wormed through their link, causing Ayaka's chest to tighten._ It feels like she's afraid…_

_ "That digimon is strong… I don't think we have the power necessary to defeat it. We have to get Hypnos to activate its Gateway system and transport it out of here before it's too late. It is…it is…"_

The view of Crusadermon's perspective distorted a bit, nearly dissolving into static once more. Ayaka tightened her grip on her digivice, this time adding her free hand as well.

"Hang in there, Crusadermon," she whispered fearfully.

"Um…Ayaka?" said Kenta. "I think you'll want to see this."

The girl found doing just that to be the hardest thing that she could remember doing. Something about the way Kenta sounded suggested that Crusadermon's words were verified. Even so, she carefully turned to find her boyfriend standing next to her, his digivice's screen raised and pointed in her direction. The holographic circle that hovered above its screen displayed the digimon's stats for her to read. She glanced over them briefly, her heart suddenly growing cold in shock.

**Daemon**

**Stage: Super Ultimate**

**Type: Virus**

**Special Attacks: Algol's Flame, Dark Spreader**

"Oh shit…" she whispered under her breath as she read the stats again. _Super Ultimate…_

**…**

"Ugh…" Gallantmon's eyes winced as both he and MegaGargomon closed in on the creature that was most decidedly the source of the problems afflicting the city. "This is not going to be good…"

_"Whatever happened to that ol' confidence of 'hit it with your lance and everything'll be okay?'"_ chided Terriermon's voice from MegaGargomon.

_"Terriermon…"_ sighed Henry.

"Sorry," apologized Gallantmon. "It's just…the last time I felt something like this we were going up against Gehenmon."

_"I hate to admit it," _replied Henry. _"But you're right. This isn't going to be easy."_

_ "I'll say," _chimed in Terriermon. _"This guy is making my skin crawl, and right now I don't even _have_ skin! How's that work?"_

_ "That'd be because of all the electrical circuits we have in our body."_

_ "Oh. Right. Leave it to the computer geek to know that."_

_ "Come on guys,"_ interrupted Takato's voice as Gallantmon came to a landing on a building's rooftop. _"We've got to think of a way to deal with…whoever this guy is."_ Gallantmon leaned forward and narrowed his eyes. He could barely discern the creature from beneath all of the strange waves that were flowing off its body. All that he could tell for certain was that it had blue wings and a horned, demonic appearance, none of which filled him with confidence.

"Really wish that we could use our digivices scanning mode in our Mega forms," mused Gallantmon.

"Well, we can't," replied MegaGargomon. "So we're just going to have to make do with what we can."  
From within his orange colored data sphere, Takato nodded reluctantly. He knew perfectly well that if they dropped out of their Mega forms, their partners would be in danger of being deleted, and they couldn't afford that even if it meant that they would be at a disadvantage. Gallantmon hefted his lance.

_Well, it's not like we can't work things out by experimenting. Still, if this guy feels this powerful, I wonder if we're going to need my Crimson Mode._

Takato frowned from within his data sphere. He hadn't reached Crimson Mode in a long time. Could he still do it?

_I don't even know how to use that Sephirot thing that Guilmon got three years ago,_ he thought to himself._ Oh, man…I just hope that we won't be needing it…_

Takato was brought out of his thoughts by a massive explosion as the creature sent something flying into a nearby building. As he watched, he saw the distinct form of Crusadermon come tearing out of the building before impacting into another.

"Crusadermon!" he exclaimed in surprise. Before he could do anything else, the knight felt his armor heat up ever so slightly. Spinning to the side, he narrowly avoided a ball of blue fire as it rocketed past him. The flames tore down into the street where it smashed, sending rock and debris flying through the air.

"Holy…" he began, only to be interrupted by the feeling of something pushing against him. Turning towards its source he saw the creature, wrapped in an envelope of warping air before it smashed its fist directly into his visor. Gallantmon's vision went dark for a second before he felt something crash into his back. Blinking away the darkness that clouded his vision, he fought to regain his breath. Glancing around, he saw the broken street lying all around him, cracks spreading where he had fallen.

**…**

_"Takato!"_ exclaimed Henry as he threw MegaGargomon's massive fist towards the creature. Undaunted, it caught his fist with one hand. Cracks splintered all along the armor of the Mega's fist before shattering completely, revealing a complex series of motors and circuitry lying beneath. A howl of pain was let loose from MegaGargomon's mouth, but the Mega forced it out of his mind, bringing his weapon systems online in the process. Green lasers flew from the barrels surrounding his wrists, lancing at the entity where they struck home with pinpoint accuracy.

The creature didn't so much as flinch from the attack.

Rearing backwards, the beast's mouth opened and expanded before firing a blast of blue fire. The flames rocketed forth in the form of a blue sphere and smashed into MegaGargomon's stomach, causing the green armor to glow red from the intense heat as he curled over and fell forward. Within his data sphere, Henry bit his lip, trying to keep himself from crying out.

_This isn't working,_ thought Henry desperately as he clenched his stomach. _I'm no good here if I can't bring all my firepower against this guy._

Glaring at the creature, the engines on MegaGargomon's back repositioned themselves before firing. Surging upwards, he lunged with one hand, lasers firing from their barrels. Once more the lasers did nothing against the entity, dissolving before they could even get close. Henry gritted his teeth and poured even more power into the blasts. Intense waves fell off the creature's body, pushing against his hand and preventing him from grabbing it. It was a stalemate, but one that would not last for very long if the creature's performance so far meant anything.

_Only one chance,_ thought Henry. **"Mega Barrage!"** he shouted as ports opened. Missiles flew free from their hidden compartments and MegaGargomon pulled his hand back before they struck. Explosions resounded upon the air before the creature's form flew free from the smoke, catching MegaGargomon by surprise. The beast slammed a clawed hand onto MegaGargomon's face as it leered at him, fangs gleaming in the darkness.

**"Dark Spreader…"**

_Wha…?_

Within his emerald data sphere, Henry's body lurched suddenly as spasms ripped through his muscles. The creature released his hold on the Mega and with a flap of his blazing wings moved back, surveying his handiwork.

"Good," he breathed, his eyes narrowing. "Now…attack your comrade. Destroy him."

Sudden rage seized Henry's mind and a crimson cloud blanketed his vision. Spinning his head over in Gallantmon's direction he found the white and red armored Royal Knight staggering to his feet. Missile ports reopened as his targeting sensors zeroed in on him.

**"Mega Barrage!"** he shouted before the missiles flew free and streaked towards their new target.

**…**

Beelzemon saw the explosions detonating as he sped towards the battle site. He grimaced.

_Must be a tough one if Henry and Rabbit-stew had to go Mega to fight. They're always going on about how their Mega form is not suited for fights around here._

Beelzemon blew past a stop sign and glanced down at his Berenjena shotguns.

_ Wonder if I'm going to need more power for this too…_

Suddenly Beelzemon was catapulted out of his seat as something caused Behemoth's front wheel to jam up. The Demon Lord impacted with the pavement and skidded across its surface before finally smashing into a parked car. With a roar of indignation and irritation he tore his way out of the car's remains, sending glass fragments sprinkling onto the ground.

"All right," Beelzemon growled, pulling out his shotgun. "Who's the wise guy?"

The sound of hissing, rapidly broken like a laugh, drew his attention.

The creature was dragon-like in appearance with dark, metallic armor and wings. Claws flexed in the light of the street lamps and a long, steel-like tail flexed. Beelzemon's eyes narrowed dangerously as he followed the tail to its tip where a long, razor-sharp blade held Behemoth aloft, skewered through its front wheel.

"Okay, bub," Beelzemon said in a cold, firm tone as he leveled his shotgun at the creature's face. "You've got three seconds to drop the bike before I go to town on you."

"I'm sorry," chortled the creature, his tail swaying slightly in the wind. "Is this yours?"

"I said _drop it,"_ repeated Beelzemon dangerously.

"Very well," replied the creature. Flicking his tail, he tossed Behemoth contemptuously to the side and brought his full attention on the Demon Lord. "I must admit that it is good to see one of your kind riding the Behemoth again." The creature hissed again, this time making what sounded like disgust and disappointment. "Even if you happen to be on the side of _angels_ this time…"

_Who is this guy?_ Beelzemon wondered before discarding the question. "Look bub. I've got places to go, so get out of my sight before…"

"Before…what?" The creature's tail moved slightly, its tip pointed at Beelzemon. "You have your mission and I…_I_ just happen to have mine as well." The creature laughed slightly. "And that is to stop you from…"

That was all Beelzemon needed to know. The creature had not even finished talking when the Demon Lords Berenjena Shotgun roared in his hand, sending twin cone-shaped shells blasting through the air, sending shockwaves as they tore mercilessly towards their target. In a manner that could only be called casual, the dragon-creature's tail whipped forward and slammed into the bullets, promptly knocking them out of the air and sending them slamming into the wall of the building next to him.

Beelzemon didn't let this deter him. Already his free hand went over his shoulder and brought out his remaining holstered shotgun and began firing with all barrels. Air pulsated around the creature's body before surging outwards, halting the bullets in their path and causing them to fall harmlessly to the ground. The waves emanating from the dragon-creature's body continued onwards, undaunted by Beelzemon's continued firing. Seeing that his shotguns were having no effect, he leapt upwards, dodging the wave as it slammed into the ruined car behind him. No sooner did he take to the air than did two black wings rip free from his back and his eyes changed from red to green.

The dragon-creature tilted its head to one side, eying Beelzemon curiously.

"You haven't asked who I am," it observed. Beelzemon snorted.

"Don't know and don't care. You're here to stop me, and as far as I'm concerned that makes you a roadblock." Pointing one of his shotguns at the creature, a violet light encompassed the weapon and expanded outwards, transforming into a large cannon with a jaw-shaped tip. "Looks like the guys who do road construction are about to get their money's worth. **Corona Blaster!"**

Violet energy rocketed forth from Beelzemon's _Death Slinger_ cannon, and this time the dragon-creature dodged. In response to Beelzemon's attack it whipped its tail around and sent a crescent-shaped energy blade flying towards him. Beelzemon threw himself backwards, narrowly avoiding having his head neatly decapitated. Spinning around he brought his remaining shotgun to bear and let loose a stream of bullets on the creature. This time the bullets hit their target, smashing into its armor with ferocious force until finally the dragon-creature's body began to blur and distort.

_Finally,_ Beelzemon smiled.

The feeling of claws clamping hard around the back of his head promptly wiped the smile off his face.

_What the…?_ Began Beelzemon, although he already knew what was going on.

"Don't count yourself victorious too soon," crooned the dragon creature in Beelzemon's ears before lifting him up slightly and then hurling him into the streets below. Pavement shattered and lifted upwards from the force of the impact, and Beelzemon found himself having trouble lifting himself off the ground.

_This is going to be a tough one,_ he thought, staggering to his feet.

**…**

Prometheus stepped over the unconscious forms of Mayumi Wong and her two children Jaarin and Rinchei from where they lay outside of Suzie's door. Stepping into the girl's bedroom, he surveyed the scene. Suzie lay in bed, her hands clenching her sheets while an uncomfortable expression lined her face. Sweat stood out prominently on her forehead. A dark cloud billowed around her, seething angrily. Prometheus' hand moved noticeably, massaging the fur of an unconscious Lopmon in his arms. He looked down at the helpless digimon with a sorrowful expression on his face before returning his attention to Suzie and the Bakumon hovering above her.

"Are you almost done?" he asked the Rookie digimon. "We kind of have a time schedule to keep."

"Do _you_ want to fill this girl's mind with nightmares?" asked Bakumon, shooting a glare at Prometheus. The man shrugged and continued to pet the unconscious Lopmon.

"I'm merely reminding you of your place in the plan. We cannot allow things to go on too long. Otherwise, the Tamers will begin to take some…unnecessary casualties."

"Does it have anything to do with whatever it was nearly killed me and the rabbitmon you're holding?"

Prometheus nodded, still petting Lopmon. Bakumon snorted.

"Of all the… You know what? Whatever. After this, I'm done."

"No, you are not," replied Prometheus, narrowing his eyes. "I told you before…"

"Yeah, well this is heading well down the road towards nuts. I don't expect to _die_ helping you…"

"And you think things will be any different when you go after the Digimon Queen?" ased Prometheus pointedly, causing Bakumon to stiffen up in surprise. "I'm sure you've seen how close she is to her current partner. Don't think that they will hesitate to remove you should you become a problem to them. Many digimon have already fallen in that venture. _You_ will share the same fate if you're not careful."

"How do you know…?"

"Continue with your task," Prometheus interrupted, his hand continuing to caress Lopmon's body. "You and I will have a talk later."

Bakumon grimaced as Prometheus stepped away from the room and made his way down the hall. Chewing on the inside of his mouth, the Rookie digimon resumed his work.

**…**

Sakuyamon quickly entered Hypnos with Noriko in her arms, finding the place to be in the throes of chaos. There was much bustle as technicians and security guards were rushing about, flashlights dancing all over the main lobby.

"Excuse me," she began, catching the attention of one of the passing technicians.

"Ah!" the technician spoke, grinding to a halt as he recognized the Tamer of the Mega level digimon. "Ms…um…Ms. Nonaka!"

"What's going on around here?" asked Sakuyamon, nodding to the technician.

"Sorry. We're experiencing all kinds of technical difficulties right now. Power generators have crashed, and there seems to be some problems with the network as well…"

"Uh-huh. Look, I'm sorry, but I don't have time to deal with this. Two of my friends are out there fighting a pretty nasty digimon." Rika grimaced within her data sphere as she cast her mind out onto the link she shared with Takato. It took all of her willpower to stop herself from simply dumping Noriko right there and charge off to help. "I have to get back there and help them as soon as possible."

"Uh…right," replied the technician, scanning the shaman with his flashlight. "Um…wh-what can I do for you then?" His flashlight fell upon the unconscious Noriko and he frowned. "Hey, is she okay?"

"And that is what we need you guys to figure out," answered Sakuyamon. "The digimon that we're fighting…it seems to be messing up a lot of things for some reason and Noriko seems to be one of them. Look, I _can't_ stick it out here for very long. I need to get back there."

"I understand," nodded the technician. Raising one hand he whistled over to a pair of guards that were passing by. "Hey! You two! We need a hand over here. Tamer down!"

That got their attention. Within seconds the two guards were in front of Sakuyamon and carefully taking hold of Noriko.

"Okay," said the technician, turning to Sakuyamon. "The elevators are all down so we're going to have to just make her comfortable here while we find some equipment that we can use to check her over. Right now I don't know if we can guarantee anything fast." The technician pressed his lips together. "Wouldn't it have been better to have taken her to the hospital or something? There's not much that we can do here…"

"In her case, trust me, there's a _lot_ you guys can do," replied Sakuyamon, hefting her staff. "I can't explain it right now, so you'll have to get one of the Monster Makers. They know practically everything anyway. I've got to get going and…" Sakuyamon suddenly staggered in surprise, pressing one hand against her fox shaped facemask. The technician and the two guards looked at her in alarm and moved to help her, but she waved them off. Shaking her head, she pressed her lips together into one thin line.

"The others are in trouble. I can't stay here any longer."

With that, Sakuyamon rushed towards the main exit of Hypnos.

**…**

"Henry!" exclaimed Gallantmon as he narrowly dodged an incoming missile fired at him via MegaGargomon's left shoulder. "Will you…? _Henry!_"

It was no good, just as it had been no good for who knew how long by now. For whatever reason MegaGargomon was hell bent on attacking him, firing stream of missile after missile at him. His armor was dented, battered, and all but ruined from the sheer amount of attacks he had been forced to take thus far, and his cape was in far worse condition. Gallantmon ducked and wove between the incoming fire, lashing out with his lance to catch what missiles he couldn't escape.

But as with all things, his luck couldn't hold out forever.

A missile finally broke through his defenses and struck the Royal Knight full in the face, sending him careening towards a nearby rooftop. Managing to keep his senses about him, Takato tried to maintain enough loft to regain flight. Instead of plowing through the roof, he instead skipped off its surface, tearing off a corner in the process as he returned to the air.

A fresh volley of missiles were quick to greet him.

_This just doesn't end,_ thought Takato wearily as he raised his lance.

**"Lightning Joust!"** Gallantmon shouted as a bolt of electricity shot outwards, cleaving through the missiles as they surged towards him. Some of the missiles began to move of their own accord, dodging his attacks. Hefting his shield, Gallantmon braced himself for the impact that was sure to follow.

He was not disappointed.

Gallantmon grunted as the missiles struck home, but he held firm. Flying downwards towards the streets below, he tried to catch his breath and get his bearings.

_Something is seriously wrong here,_ he thought, landing. _For some reason Henry wants to take us out and he's not listening to us either. I don't really get what's going on but…_ Within his data sphere Takato frowned thoughtfully._ …could this digimon be capable of controlling people's minds? Like the Parasimon?_

A good question, and definitely one that deserved thought. However, it did little to help him figure out a way to end the battle. The sound of MegaGargomon's engines closing in on his location was a constant reminder that he was going to be forced onto the defensive. He refused to harm his friend, but he was losing ground doing so.

_I've got to try and take the fight to that digimon. Maybe if I defeat it, Henry will be free. It's a long shot…_ Gallantmon tightened his grip on his shield and lance. _…a_ really_ long shot, but it's one I've got to take._

The sound of roaring engines grew louder. MegaGargomon was almost on him. Tensing, Gallantmon prepared to leap back into the sky.

_Okay…get ready. Get set…_

"Pih?"

Gallantmon nearly stumbled in surprise at the unexpected sound. Turning, his golden eyes widened in surprise at the diminutive pink fairy that floated in front of him.

"MarineAngemon!" exclaimed Gallantmon happily. "What are you…? Never mind. It's obvious. Where are Kenta, Ayaka, and Crusadermon?"

"Over here," proclaimed the voice of Crusadermon, stepping out of the shadows with the two Tamers standing beside her.

"Kenta saw that you guys were in trouble," said Ayaka, throwing a finger at the bespectacled boy. "Once he saw that there was nothing that was going to stop him from helping you even if we don't have a plan."

"And it would appear that we need one quite soon," observed Crusadermon as MegaGargomon's massive form appeared above them, casting a dark shadow over them.

"Uh oh…"

Red light glowed ominously in MegaGargomon's eyes as missile ports opened up and took aim at the Tamers and their digimon.

**"Mega Barrage!"**

**…**

Daemon watched the form of MegaGargomon as he hunted for the Royal Knight, a deeply satisfied smile on his face. He waited for a moment, and then bright light burst upon the city. Throwing his head back, Daemon let loose a loud laugh.

**...**

A/N: The repair bill from this fight is going to break the bank for Shinjuku, I just know it. Seriously, when you have a digimon like MegaGargomon cut loose with no care for his surroundings, there's going to be a lot of damage.

Beelzemon makes his reappearance after…how long? I kinda lost track, but it was good to bring him back into the fic, even if he became stonewalled by Maelstrom. And his bike gets trashed again. It's a good thing that digimon seem to be fully capable of repairing, reloading, and refueling their equipment when they evolve. Otherwise I can only imagine how much his vehicle insurance would be…if it would even cover getting trashed by a knight, a train, and now a possessed DexDorugoramon.

'Till next chapter. :)

-Crazyeight

9


	46. Red Sky, Take Warning

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.

Revival

Chapter: 46/ Red Sky, Take Warning

Suzie sat on the floor, cradling the limp form of her partner, Lopmon, in her arms, quiet sobs echoing within the quiet of the air. The long-eared digimon had a battered look about her; her fur a mottled mess of ripped fur, bloody cuts, and dark bruises.

"Lopmon…" Suzie whispered, holding her partner close to her chest. "Please…_please_ wake up…"

Her partner continued to not respond, and after a couple seconds passed, the Rookie's body began to blur as it destabilized.

"Looks like she's going to break apart soon," came the familiar voice of Henry. Looking over her shoulder, she found her brother standing behind her, hands in his pockets with Terriermon sitting on his left shoulder.

"Well," spoke up Terriermon, giggling a little. "It's no surprise to me. The way she hugs digimon practically counts as its own attack. It's very lethal."

"Terriermon…"

"What? Momentai, Henry! Mo-men-tai!"

Suzie sniffed, turning to face her brother more fully. "H-Henry. I…I need…h-help."

Henry raised one hand to his chin and rubbed it thoughtfully. "Actually Suzie…don't you think this would be for the better?"

Suzie blinked, not expecting to hear that from his mouth.

"W-What?"

"Think about it," said Henry, lowering his hand to his side. "How many times has Lopmon gotten into this kind of condition lately? And you haven't been able to protect her. You just don't have the experience to help her…"

"Yeah," chimed in Terriermon, clambering up onto Henry's head. "I mean, that dork of a kid, what-his-name, Atsuo, did this right?"

"I _can't_ fight him!" screamed Suzie, feeling as though she were starting to lose control of herself. Her sobs hitched in her throat as Lopmon began to blur all the more. Did her grip became that much looser? Suzie couldn't tell for sure, but she knew that her emotions were not helping her partner at all. Taking a shallow, shuddering breath, Suzie struggled to get a hold of herself. "He's…he's just a kid. I…I can't hurt him. _Lopmon_ can't hurt him…"

"You're supposed to protect your partner, right?" asked Terriermon pointedly. "Henry doesn't take any crap from any humans who try to give me trouble."

Henry glanced at Terriermon with an amused smile. "You hardly give them a chance to since you've always been fast on your feet."

"True…"

"Just…just help me," cried Suzie. _"Please."_

Her voice dropped into a whisper on that last word. She could now feel for certain that her grip on Lopmon was loosening—disappearing just as her partner was disappearing. Orbs of light were now floating away from Lopmon's body and she was beginning to become translucent. "Lopmon. _Lopmon!_ Stay with me! Henry! Do something!"

"Sorry," apologized Henry. "But like I said, maybe this is for the best. You've always made me—made _all_ of us worried about looking after you during a battle because you have a habit of getting into trouble. Humans or digimon, it's Lopmon's job to protect you. Maybe this is her way of protecting you."

Suzie's eyes looked up at Henry, eyes wide with horror, wondering how her brother could even say such a thing.

"Henry…"

"You know that we don't need you," said Henry, kneeling forward so that he was more eye-level with her.

"Yeah," spoke up Rika's voice as she and Takato approached them, her arm slung over the boy's shoulder companionably. "We have a hard enough time keeping track of enemies. We don't need little girls who can't take care of themselves."

"Rika…" began Takato, and the girl sighed despondently.

"Sorry," she replied. "But I was handling punks like that Atsuo kid when I was her age. I made _older_ boys cry you know." Rika smirked as she turned towards him, running one hand over his cheek. "Just like I do you…"

"Ah…uh…ummm…" Takato stuttered, shifting uncomfortably.

"Their point is," said Kazu as he appeared next. "We've got no time to deal with crybabies. Either put up or shut up 'cause you've got to be able to take care of yourself out there. Digimon live or die depending on whether or not their partners can help them, and a Tamer that can't take care of himself—like Kenta over here," the boy threw a finger over his shoulder as the bespectacled teen appeared just in time for him to demonstrate, "isn't someone who's worth being a Tamer."

"Thanks, Kazu," grumbled Kenta. The teen shrugged.

"Eh, don't mention it."

Another figure appeared and began to approach the group. Suzie felt a shudder go through her as she looked in Jeri's direction. The brown-haired girl had a sad expression on her face. Finally she stopped in front of her.

"I lost my partner because I wasn't able to protect my partner," she whispered. "I know what it's like to hold everyone back. So please do everyone a favor and stop trying to be a Tamer. Just…let go of Lopmon."

"No!" Suzie cried, staggering to her feet and away from the other Tamers, her face a portrait of horror and disgust towards her family and _friends._ How could they be like this? _How?_ "I want to be a Tamer! I don't want to hold anyone back, but I can't do anything if no one helps show me _how!_ _I need to know what I can do!"_

The Tamers became dark shadows as they stepped to the side. A new figure approached them and came to a stop in front of Suzie. Atsuo's face glared at her contemptuously.

"Then do what these guys have been doing ever since they became Tamers. Kill every digimon you come across." A nightmarish smile full of fangs spread across Atsuo's face as he himself began to transform into a demonic shadow. "Delete them all and then…_eat them."_

Atsuo's shadowy form began to rise until it towered over Suzie. It was at that moment that Lopmon's body dissolved completely into a shower of sparkling light that rapidly disappeared into the darkness, leaving the girl alone beneath Atsuo's shadow.

**…**

Suzie's scream echoed throughout the apartment as she sat up. She sat in her bed for a moment, her heart hammering in her chest painfully. Swallowing her fear audibly, she glanced around, and nearly burst into tears of relief when she found Lopmon lying next to her. Pulling the tiny digimon close to her she held her close while she began to calm down. Feeling her, Lopmon stirred against Suzie's chest, and large, dark, button-like eyes looked up in confusion.

"Is everything all right, Suzie?" Lopmon asked, her voice muffled by sleep.

Suzie sniffed as she ran an arm across her face. "Just…just a bad dream. I'm fine now. How…how are you?"

"I'm fine," replied Lopmon, reaching out with her ears and wrapping them around Suzie's arms, trying to comfort the clearly upset girl. "Do you want to talk about it?"

Suzie shook her head. "No. Well…not right now. Right now I'm just glad to see that you're okay."

Lopmon gave her a sympathetic look. She knew Suzie had been terribly concerned about her lately, ever since her problems with Atsuo had started. Lately they seemed to be getting progressively worse, even though Atsuo had been moved to a different class.

_I wish there was something more that I could do to help her,_ she commiserated. They lay there for a few moments, both trying to comfort each other.

Their moments were short lived.

Lopmon felt her body stiffen all of a sudden, as something assaulted her senses. Crimson light flooded the room through the window.

"Suzie!" Lopmon exclaimed, quickly disentangling herself from her partner's arms and leaping over to the window. "Something's happening!"

"Geez…" Suzie raised one arm to shield her eyes from the blinding light as she quickly followed her partner to the window and looked outside. The light seemed to engulf the entire city. "What's going o—oh!" Suzie blinked as memory struck her. "Is…is that Takato in his _Crimson Mode?_ What the heck is going on out there? My digivice! Where…" Suzie turned around rapidly and rushed over to her nightstand. In spite of the light emanating from outside, she still knocked things over in her scramble, but within seconds she had what she was looking for. The D-Arc's tracking ring rose above its screen and its compass arrow swung wildly, trying to pick up some sign of a digimon. "I'm…I'm not picking up anything. Well, not anything except for the others. I don't get it. What's going on out the—?"

Suzie's voice was cut off as the crimson light flickered and winked out of existence. The girl could have sworn that she felt her heart drop into her stomach just then.

"Oh no…"

"Suzie." Lopmon turned towards her partner, a determined look on her face. "We've got to go help them."

The girl's face was a mirror of Lopmon's and she quickly threw on a coat that she had hanging on a nearby chair.

"Let's _go!"_

**…**

Prometheus watched as Suzie and Lopmon dashed out of the apartment, sitting calmly at her family's table, sipping a cup of hot, steaming tea. Next to him, Bakumon watched worriedly.

"That was a close one," the Rookie said as the apartment's door slammed shut. Prometheus shook his head.

"Not in the least. I'm here. The chances of either of them noticing you are that much smaller. They could have been looking right at you and still not have noticed anything."

"I…see." Bakumon fidgeted slightly. "So I take it that we're done with this girl?"

"The die is being rolled, so yes. Now we sit back and watch the show." Getting up Prometheus wandered into the living room and looked out the large window towards the city. A massive explosion kicked up into the air, marking the sight of battle for the both of them to see, briefly illuminating the room. Prometheus sat down on the couch and sipped from his tea again.

"Anyway," Prometheus said again. "How was it? Are you full?"

Bakumon shrugged. "It was okay. Forcing dreams like this though don't always work the best." He paused. "Even if they taste good…"

"I see." Prometheus sipped at his tea again. "Well, her fears are very ripe, but I suppose anything can get stale after a while. The next target will have a different taste though."

Bakumon raised an eyebrow. "How different?"

"As different as love and hate," clarified Prometheus, sipping his tea again. "Though in this case, it's more like a love unfulfilled. When you want something that's beyond your reach, it becomes breeding ground for resentment. Especially towards someone who does have what you desire."

Bakumon scowled. "That…could be difficult to work with. I still don't know if I want to do this…"

"You have no choice in the matter," reminded Prometheus. "And I hardly think that it will be too difficult. She's at the right age. They _all_ are at the right age. New feelings, new emotions…and all _very_ intense." Prometheus raised a hand and a picture materialized between his fingers. He took another sip from his tea. "One simple twist and everything becomes a Gordian Knot." He flicked the hand holding the picture meaningfully towards Bakumon, and the Rookie floated over to him, curious.

"Who's this?"

"Your next target. Begin tomorrow. Start small, but end large. I want tears towards the end."

Bakumon frowned at Prometheus. "Fine," he grumbled. "And then afterwards I can go after my Queen?"

"If that is what you want to do, then yes. I won't stop you. By then, I'll have all the pieces I need. You can clean things up from there."

"All right," Bakumon nodded. He turned towards the window and huffed irritably. "How long until this battle is over?"

"I think that depends on young Suzie and Atsuo out there. Oh, the others will definitely make a good fight of it, but this is definitely going to be between those two. Just like it was in the beginning. However, everything hinges on Suzie and what she does."

"What's that?"

Prometheus smirked and took another sip from his tea. Making a pleased sound, he looked at Bakumon.

"Do you want some of this? This is good stuff."

**…**

Sakuyamon flew through the air, urging every bit of speed that she possibly could. The crimson light that had flooded the sky had died down, leaving Sakuyamon with a sense of foreboding. Reaching out with her mind, she touched on her connection with Takato. She breathed a sigh of relief when she still found it there, though his lack of response to her prodding did not leave her feeling comfortable.

_He's occupied,_ thought Rika from within her blue data-sphere, pressing her lips together into one, thin, worried line. _But he's still there. Still fighting. That's something anyway._ Rika bit her lower lip as she narrowed her eyes. _Don't do anything dumb, Takato. Please._

The shaman priestess flew ever closer towards the battle site.

**…**

Shining, metal dagger-like feathers clinked together as ten, massive wings spread wide, revealing a blue and red armored knight. A blue gem stood prominently on his chest, containing a swirling vortex that shone in the night. Two weapons, one a dual-bladed spear and the other a sword, glinted in his hands. Golden eyes turned up towards the massive form of MegaGargomon. Lights sparkled in the air as data flowed upwards, the remnants of the Mega's missiles following their destruction at the knight's hands.

"Okay," spoke Gallantmon Crimson Mode, his voice full of heavy determination. His wings shifted slightly as he raised the double-bladed spear and brought it to bear against MegaGargomon. "I'm sorry, Henry. But it's time to end this." He glanced over his shoulder at his fellow companions. "MarineAngemon. Kenta. I need you guys to back me up on this."

"You…you got it," said Kenta, already digging through his deck box. "MarineAngemon?"

"Pihpih," the diminutive Mega replied with a nod of his head.

With a powerful flap of his wings, Gallantmon rose into the air, followed quickly by MarineAngemon. In response, MegaGargomon raised his arms and fired the guns affixed to his wrists. Gallantmon swept his sword to the side, sending a stream of red light cascading outwards, obliterating the green laser bursts before they could even get close to him. The red light continued onwards before slamming into MegaGargomon, causing the Mega to buckle slightly beneath the impact. He held firm however, and soon locked his targeting sensors on the oncoming knight. Missile ports opened up all over his body.

Gallantmon didn't give him a chance to fire his weapons.

With a mighty flap of his wings, he lunged forward and slammed his armored arm into MegaGargomon's face. Light flared around his armor, lending strength to his blows. Within his orange-colored data-sphere, Takato winced, seeing a spider web of cracks spread across MegaGargomon's stomach. He could sense Guilmon's regret at having to attack their friend, but they had little choice in the matter. It was fight or be killed. By fighting, they at least had a chance of resolving the situation.

MegaGargomon's massive fist came up to swat Gallantmon away, but the Royal Knight deftly blocked the blow with his spear, aided by the massive power that surged through his body. Windows shattered from the force of the blow, but Gallantmon did not as much as budge. Crimson light gathered around his sword, and he raised it into the air.

_One chance. Got to be careful about this…_

Gallantmon brought his sword crashing down, smashing into MegaGargomon's head. Bright light exploded outwards, engulfing the Megas. Gallantmon found himself being buffeted by the forces that he had just let loose, no matter how well contained he had made it. His wings adjusted themselves appropriately, keeping him in place. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, MegaGargomon's body began to shrink and separate into the two forms of Henry and Terriermon.

_"Now MarineAngemon!"_

**"Kahuna Waves!"**

Blue bubbles flew through the air, catching Henry and his partner as they began to fall through the air, immediately stabilizing Terriermon as Daemon's presence started to work on him. Gallantmon breathed a sigh of relief and began to descend towards the streets below with MarineAngemon, their two friends now safe and sound.

_"I'm glad that's over with,"_ breathed Takato, smiling in the direction of MarineAngemon. _"Thanks."_

_ "Yeah!"_ exclaimed Guilmon, his voice full of relief. _"Thank you lots! I'll have to make you MarineAngemon Bread!"_

"Pih?" MarineAngemon raised his eyebrows, suddenly eager.

_"Uh…Guilmon? Mom said that you can't use the oven anymore…"_

_ "Ohhh…that's right. I forgot…"_

_ "Well, either way, you've earned yourself a treat,"_ smiled Takato as they came to a landing._ "Terriermon and Henry are both safe. I just hope whatever it was that happened isn't permanent."_

"Don't worry," said Kenta, giving the Royal Knight a nervous smile that belied his words. "MarineAngemon and I will work on him. We'll make sure that he doesn't have any more trouble."

"Thanks Kenta," replied Gallantmon, adjusting his grip on his weapons. "All right. I'm going to go take care of that digimon now."

"We'll help," said Ayaka, gripping her digivice.

"Uh…actually," began Gallantmon, glancing over in the direction of Daemon, "I think it would be better if the two of you stayed behind and covered Kenta."

"Wha…?" Ayaka's face became livid. "But…we have to work together to take this guy down! He…"

"Ayaka." Crusadermon's hand reached out and squeezed the girl's shoulder. "Daemon is far too powerful for us to take on, even with the use of cards boosting our strength."

"Then…then…we'll biomerge! We'll use our Rose Mode!"

"We have not been able to attain that form since we first acquired it," she said to her. "I should point out, that when we did biomerge, there were special circumstances. Namely that there was a massive distortion effect that was altering the fabric of reality. Daemon, as powerful as he is, is not giving us the same option. His existence is detrimental to the existence of lower level digimon." Crusadermon glanced over at Terriermon to see if MarineAngemon's heart-bubble was continuing to protect him. It was. "The odds of our gaining the chance to biomerge are slim to nonexistence. I'm afraid that our best chance is to stay out of this for the time being, so as to not inconvenience Gallantmon."

Ayaka turned to face her partner more fully. "What's with you, Crusadermon? You _want_ to stay out of this fight? You've told me yourself that Daemon is the kind of digimon you're supposed to fight!"

"My mission was different then," acknowledged Crusadermon. "But again, we will only be a hindrance to Gallantmon. To fight this kind of foe, he needs the full power of his Crimson Mode to battle this digimon properly. In addition," Crusadermon shuddered angrily and tightened one hand into a fist, "I was defeated too easily by Daemon. We need to come up with a new strategy to combat this digimon should Gallantmon be unable to defeat him."

Ayaka ground her teeth together. "Fine," she said after a moment. "We'll work something out while _Gogglehead_ here hogs all the action."

"All right," nodded Gallantmon finally. "Then let's go…"

_"Going somewhere without me?"_ came a familiar voice as a shadow fell over the group. Looking up, they all saw Sakuyamon coming in for a landing. The shaman priestess touched down on the broken street, grimacing at Henry and Terriermon. "What happened here?"

"Um…" began Kenta, rubbing the back of his head. "There was a bit of a problem."

"This version of Daemon appears to have corrupted Henry and his partner while they were biomerged," supplied Crusadermon. "We managed to resolve the issue, but only time will tell if everything is all right. In the meantime," the Royal Knight pointed in the direction ahead of them, "Daemon continues to be on the move."

"Then what are we still doing here?" asked Sakuyamon, shifting her staff from one hand to the next. "Let's go take this guy down."

"Are you sure you're up to it?" asked Gallantmon worriedly. "I mean, earlier…"

Sakuyamon gritted her teeth, knowing what the knight was talking about even as his words drifted off.

_"Rika,"_ spoke up Renamon's voice from the darkness surrounding the girl's data-sphere. _"We are low on energy."_

_ "I know,"_ replied Rika, scowling. She glanced over in Gallantmon's direction. _"This link works both ways, Takato. Think you can spare any of that power of yours? This way we'll have two Mode Changes for that creep to deal with."_

Gallantmon hesitated for only a moment before nodding and closing his eyes. Within the back of her mind, Rika felt a small nudge. Closing her own eyes, she took a deep breath. A feeling that she could only describe as wind blew around her and she felt a sudden rush of power. Involuntarily, words came to her lips as both she and Renamon spoke.

**"Sakuyamon! Mode change tooo…Sakuyamon, Kabuki Mode!"**

Opening her eyes, Rika nodded at finding herself transformed. Gone were the sleek, black bodysuit, armor, and gloves. In their place was a shrine maiden outfit complete with a red dress. Her staff had also changed into a wand; simpler and less elegant looking, much like the rest of her appearance. But she knew perfectly well that she had far greater power and abilities than she did before. She could feel the world around her, and every piece of it spoke to her.

"All right," Sakuyamon spoke finally. "Let's do this."

**…**

_Power._ Daemon stared out over the city, reveling in the strength that flowed through his body. _The power of a Super Ultimate,_ he thought, smiling to himself. _And it all came from this human. To think that we were this compatible. _He narrowed his eyes and lifted one clawed hand, gazing at it._ It's not the Dark Spore, but there is power here that is yet untapped. This…is only the beginning._

Daemon's smile grew, but he quickly reminded himself to not be so confident. Many digimon before him had fallen because they had their head swelled with newly gained power. He himself had likewise fallen from the World of Light and into the Dark Ocean because he grew too confident in his ability to steer his own destiny. The human may have granted him power, but there was no guarantee that he would always have victory.

_After all,_ he reminded himself, _there are humans here who have partners as well. They impart tremendous strength, and they should not be taken lightly._

A memory of a time when he had learned that lesson the hard way tickled at the edges of his mind. A dark-haired boy, infected by a seed—a _spore—_of darkness who, with the aid of his friends and the power of three high level digimon, tapped into the deepest reservoirs of his being and sent him into the damned waters of the Dark Ocean, where he remained until Norn came to set him free. He had underestimated _those_ humans and their partners. He would not do so again.

Daemon's gaze snapped away from his hand and towards two glowing forms approaching him. He glared darkly at them.

"So…we've digivolved to a higher level, have we?" he said to no one in particular. "Then, let's see whose power is strongest."

Flapping his wings, Daemon dove towards the two encroaching Megas, blue fire already licking at his claws. As he approached, he saw who the two Megas were and immediately developed a plan on how to best deal with them.

**…**

"Here he comes," said Gallantmon, readying his weapons. Next to him, Sakuyamon nodded.

"All right. Usual routine here. Hit him hard and fast."

"And don't give him a chance to so much as breathe," finished Gallantmon, Raising his spear. "I got it. **Quo Vadi—** What?"

A massive stream of blue fire rocketed to the side of Gallantmon, streaking towards Sakuyamon. The shaman cursed under her breath as she saw this and rapidly formed a bubble shield around her, narrowly avoiding getting struck by it. She strained against the fire, pressing all of her power against it until the flames let up. Panting heavily she looked up at Gallantmon just in time to see Daemon appearing in front of him while his attention was diverted towards her.

"Gallantmon! Look out!"

Hearing her call, the Royal Knight moved on pure instinct, spinning his spear around and causing it to crash against Daemon's claws as they surged towards him. Sparks flew through the air and crimson light buffered against blue fire as the two squared off. Demonic eyes locked with golden, human ones and after a moment, Daemon spoke.

"A Dreamer," he hissed, and the air between the two quivered. A sound that could only be described as _slithering_ echoed from the quiver, as though something lay behind it, aching to be let loose upon the knight. Gallantmon frowned.

"I seem to get that a lot. What's up with that?"

**"Algol's Flame!"** shouted Daemon. Rearing backwards the Super Ultimate digimon shot a blue ball of fire from his mouth, whereupon it smashed into Gallantmon's face. The Royal Knight grunted in surprise as he fell backwards, but not to be daunted he spun in the air, bringing his sword to come crashing down on Daemon. The blade slashed across his face, catching the demon by surprise. Data flew through the air as a red scar drew the length of his left eye and down to his mouth. It was a _small_ wound that he barely even felt, but all the same, it was rather unexpected. Daemon gritted his fangs together and grabbed Gallantmon by one of his wings. More data sprayed through the air as the steel, razor-sharp feathers stabbed into his palm, but Daemon ignored the wounds. Instead, he tightened his grip and gave a sharp pull, spreading blue fire the length of the wing, causing the metal to heat up and become a bright, molten-red color.

Sakuyamon heard a cry of pain erupt from Gallantmon's mouth as Daemon ripped the wing straight from the Mega's back, causing data to fly everywhere.

_"Takato!" _shouted Sakuyamon, suddenly fearful for the boy's safety, but Renamon's voice broke across her mind, striving to retain focus.

_"Rika! You must remain calm. If we are to help them, we _must_ be able to complete our spell! Takato and Guilmon are buying us time. Daemon's power is far too great for us to oppose directly. We _cannot_ afford to lose a second here!"_

Rika gritted her teeth and pulled her hands into fists, causing her fingernails to dig into her palms.

_"All right. All right. Let's do this."_ Closing her eyes, she summoned all of her power and focused. She needed a couple more seconds to pull this off correctly.

Meanwhile, Gallantmon sent a flash of red light beating off his remaining wings. The light crashed into Daemon, sending him careening backwards where he crashed into a nearby building. Gallantmon spun around and brandished his spear and sword. Red light surrounded them and he raised his spear, Gungnir and took aim at Daemon as he blew away the rubble surrounding him.

**"Crimson Light!"** shouted Gallantmon, and with that, a torrent of crimson tore through the air, surging towards the Demon Lord. Daemon watched as the stream of power drew towards him, electricity dancing around its edges. He raised one hand and a blue aura surrounded it.

**"Dark Spreader,"** he intoned as the crimson light struck his blue. Raw power exploded throughout the city as the two digimon strove against each other. At first, the red light hit Daemon full force, but the Demon Lord simply walked forth onto the air, not appearing at all bothered by the force that was blasting him. One second, two seconds, then three seconds passed, and blue began to reach up the length of the red beam, slowly but surely overpowering the knight.

"You are mine," Daemon said with a smile. Giving one small flick of his finger the blue light suddenly leapt up Gallantmon's attack, devouring whole and smashing into his spear, causing it to shatter in his hand. Small cracks spread across his gauntlet, and an eerie blackness began to flow from them.

"What the…?"

A roar and suddenly Daemon was right there in front of him, stabbing his claws directly into the central jewel on Gallantmon's chest. Within his data-sphere, Takato jerked as the claws pierced him. More darkness flowed into him, swallowing the light of his chest's jewel and even now seeping into his data-sphere.

_"Guilmon!"_ Takato cried out in panic.

_"Takato…"_ groaned the reptile's voice from around him. _"I feel…weird…"_

_ "Hang on, buddy! Just…hang…_on!"

Closing his eyes, Takato reached into himself, summoning up every last ounce of power that he could get his hands on. Light flared outside, smashing into Daemon, but the Demon Lord refused to let go.

_"That…code thing that the other Gallantmon gave Guilmon,"_ thought Takato desperately. He tried to find it, but it just wasn't coming to him.

_Heck of a time to try and use something that I don't really know how to use… But Guilmon said it was just like wishing on a digignome. So…what's going on here?_

Outward, Gallantmon's golden eyes shot open. They were rapidly starting to take on a blood-red glow to them. Takato felt a familiar rage beginning to take hold of him, and his armor began to darken, his wings becoming dim and seeming to take in all the light that came to them. Swallowing it whole until all that was left was an inky, black void.

_No!_

Takato slammed his eyes shut as his data sphere became increasingly dark.

_ I won't be like that! Not again! I will not endanger my friends again! I will not disappoint my friends…_ever again!_ Never again!_

Black wings suddenly flashed back to blazing white and he shot them forward. Data flew through the air as Gallantmon stabbed the pointed edges of the feathers into Daemon's body. Daemon gritted his fangs together, but refused to let go of the Royal Knight.

"Your kind always has to be…_difficult,"_ grated Daemon, shifting his claws in Gallantmon's jewel. The knight jerked reflexively, but like his demonic opponent, he refused to let go.

"You won't turn me against my friends," he growled, his irises having changed to near-reptilian slits. "I'll die first."

"Funny. That's precisely what I was planning on you doing."

"We won't be having any of that anytime soon," spoke up a smooth, feminine voice as a hand fell upon Gallantmon's shoulder. Power suddenly infused itself into the Mega's body and flowed through his wings, into Daemon's body. Daemon shuddered as pain suddenly rocked his body. He could hear the voice of someone—the Sakuyamon most likely—singing. Ripping his claws free from Gallantmon's jewel, he clutched his hands to his ears, trying to blot out the voice. Something about the voice…_called_ to him. Its chords struck deep into the heart of his being, hurting him in ways that the imbedded blades of Gallantmon's feathers could never do.

Yet…somehow, the two seemed to resonate with each other, as wind to windchimes.

Images flashed through Daemon's mind, moving too quickly for him to see, but something in them caused him to rise up in a panic. Fire shot out, but his prison of wings held steadfast, refusing to let him go. Looking in front of him, he saw Gallantmon raise his sword, aiming it directly at his chest. Violet energy coalesced around the blade, etching symbols into its surface. Four voices suddenly spoke as one as Takato, Guilmon, Rika, and Renamon poured all their power into one final attack.

**"Soul Strike!"**

Gallantmon lunged forward, using his anchored wings to pull Daemon towards him. Daemon reared his head backwards, building up a massive fireball to attack with…

…too late. Crimson fire splashed across his chest as the blade skewered him, stabbing deep into the core of his being. He could feel pain ripping through every level of his body and soul, tearing into him. His mind went blank as he struggled to fight the invading power that sought to destroy him…

…and then something else ripped free from within him, bursting outwards into one tremendous explosion and a powerful roar of rage. It struck out at Gallantmon, catching both him and Sakuyamon by surprise before either of them had a chance to defend themselves. A shout of pain filled the air as a shower of shattered armor and rent, steel feathers exploded across the city. The explosion was immediately followed up by a second more powerful explosion that enveloped the city-block, swallowing all that were in its path.

And then, there followed silence.

**...**

A/N: My apologies for the late update. A friend asked me to help him with something and I chipped in. Anyway, there are some things about this chapter that I can't say that I feel very satisfied with. Not sure what exactly, but here it is for your reading enjoyment. I worked to show Gallantmon Crimson Mode and Sakuyamon Kabuki Mode as being in a very close power level to Daemon, but not quite up to par and thus necessitating a plan where they could get around the difference between them. As you can see, it might not have worked out too well. As to what the end-results are, you'll have to wait and see in the next chapter. :P

'Till then.

-Crazyeight

9


	47. The Angels of War

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.

Revival

Chapter: 47/ The Angels of War

A flashlight clicked, illuminating the darkened room of the Hypnos command center, revealing a greatly annoyed Kuroda.

"Would someone care to explain to me _why_ our esteemed government invests so heavily in a program that seems to do nothing but get broken on a weekly basis? I mean, yen doesn't exactly grow on trees here…"

Tally, who was busy climbing down from her chair, looked over at the man with a raised eyebrow.

"Doesn't our paper money come from trees though?"

Kuroda groaned and massaged his temples. "Please don't ruin my fun…"

"All right," said Yamaki, nodding to an agent as he finished giving his report. "It looks like no one's been hurt by the short out."

"Short out?" scoffed Kuroda in disbelief. "I think we've gone _beyond_ short out, now."

"Kuroda," hissed Tally under her breath as she landed on the ground. The man looked over at her and promptly scowled.

"Right." he adjusted his glasses. "Priorities first, sarcasm later."

"Riley," said Yamaki, panning his flashlight to a nearby control panel to find the red-haired woman tampering with some wires. "What can you tell us?"

"It's bad, sir. All of the major systems in this room have been burnt out," she replied, leaning back and wiping an arm across her brow. "I don't see how I can get even the auxiliary systems online without taking out and replacing everything here. It's like someone set off an EMP in here."

"Could have been worse," snorted Kuroda before turning to Yamaki and inclining his head questioningly. "At any rate, is this where we're going to have to hand things over to the kids and 'trust in them' like we always do? That agent didn't just come up here to tell us that we had no casualties from exploding monitors."

Yamaki refrained from grimacing, but nodded. "All systems are out throughout Hypnos. We have teams attempting to restore some of them and get the power back online, but for better or for worse, the Tamers are going to be on their own."

"What about the military?" asked Tally, looking concerned. "They've got to know what's going on now."

"Unfortunately," sighed Riley, "seeing as how we're blind we can't confirm anything. Personal computers were wiped out so we can't access backup networks."

"Shielded systems are down as well," added Yamaki.

"I figured on that," said Kuroda. "I do believe that the definition of 'all' means everything. Given what we were seeing just before that digimon let all hell loose, I'm willing to bet that the same can be said for the entire city. So I don't think we can just head over to a secondary outpost or television station and use their equipment instead. Whatever that digimon gave off, it had a lot of range to it. I think the only things that _weren't_ affected were organic life forms."

There followed a brief pause as Riley's eyes lit up in realization.

"Then…what about the Tamers' digimon? Did they survive?"

"We're not getting any answers like this," interceded Yamaki. "We have to get what systems we can restored and get back into the game."

"Hey," cut in Kuroda. "Do you really think that we can get back in with everything in the state that they're in? Even the shielded systems are fried, and this room was one of the most heavily shielded areas of Hypnos. Next to the primary lab area in the basement that is."

"Then we can try there," replied Riley, grabbing her things. "At the very least we can get something done. The Tamers may not be able to fight this enemy on their own, and we don't have the time to relocate to another area. We have to do whatever we can to protect this city and help the Tamers."

"I don't dispute that," acknowledged Kuroda, again pushing up his glasses. "But I'm wondering if you've thought this through all the way. _Any_ of you." Kuroda looked back and forth between the three before finally sighing and shrugging dejectedly. "Whatever. Feels hopeless and crazy, but I've seen those kids pull off some miracles already. What's one more? I suppose if we're lucky, we can find some tube socks that we can use in conjunction with some paper clips and chewing gum. As long as we have that, we should be okay."

Tally and Riley both looked at Kuroda with raised eyebrows. He chuckled softly, running a hand through his hair.

"Ahhh…the joys of a University education and a roommate who had an obsession with American media. All right. Let's do this. To the Bat Cave."

**…**

Lilithmon flew through the air, her expression a portrait of worry as she looked t the smoke rising from the city. She wanted to kick herself for not having noticed anything until Dracmon began to complain about feeling 'weird', as he put it. Worse still, she merely brushed it off as just something he ate until his body began to spark and destabilize.

_Just about had me freaking out,_ she thought bitterly, turning her head left and right, looking for any nearby signs of trouble. Plumes of smoke rose into the air, obscuring much of the city. She couldn't tell if there was any fighting going on.

_Maybe that's a good sign?_ Miki thought to herself from within her purple-colored data-sphere. _Rika and Takato were out on patrol, and they're both pretty tough on their own. I mean, didn't Takato wipe out an entire army of Megas on his own? And Rika…well, like Kazu says, she's 'Rika'._

A nervous smile tugged at the corners of the Mega's lips as she continued to look around desperately. For the moment, any sign of life continued to elude her.

The sound of something soaring through the air caught her attention. Looking up, Lilithmon found the familiar line of Justimon as he rocketed through the air, aiming towards the center of the city. Her eyes lighting up, Lilithmon pressed forward, urging more speed out of her Mega form.

"Hey! Ryo!" Lilithmon exclaimed as loudly as she could. Hearing her, the incoming Mega flipped himself backwards in midair and descended towards the rooftop of a nearby building, landing gracefully upon its surface. Lilithmon soon joined him, though with far less flare than the Legendary Tamer provided.

"Hey, Miki," Justimon greeted as she landed.

"Hey yourself," she breathed. "Fancy meeting you here."

"I saw the news reports, and Cyberdramon and I thought we'd get down here and lend a hand." Justimon glanced around him. "Looks like a lot has happened."

"It almost looks like it's over," Lilithmon mused aloud. "I haven't heard anything since I left the house."

"I wouldn't count any trouble out just yet until we hook up with the others. I know they're out here, we just have to find them that's all." Justimon shook his head and Ryo's voice became the dominant speaker. _"It's too bad that whatever's going on is messing up Cyberdramon's senses. We can't seem to detect any digimon nearby."_

Lilithmon frowned.

_"Dracmon? Is that true?"_ asked Miki to the darkness surrounding her data sphere.

_"Yeah, it is. It feels like there're a lot of waves going by me, and it's distorting everything. I can't make heads or tails of anything I'm sensing. It does seem to get even worse in a particular direction though. Might be where the trouble is."_

"Hmmm…" Lilithmon raised an arm and pointed off to the side as Miki's voice spoke from her lips. _"Dracmon says that whatever is messing up our partners' senses gets worse that way. He thinks that's where the source is."_

Justimon nodded in agreement. _"Yeah. Cyberdramon was just saying the same thing. Let's go check it out."_

Lilithmon nodded, and as they both turned, she spied a familiar, pink armored form descending through a cloud of black smoke.

"I see Crusadermon!" exclaimed Lilithmon excitedly, pointing ahead of them.

"Eh?" Justimon followed her finger before nodding. "Good eye. I guess that solidifies our theory then."

From within her data sphere, Miki felt herself flush a little at the praise before flashing the Legendary Tamer a wide grin and leaping into the air.

"Race you there then!"

_"Uh…Miki?"_ came Dracmon's concerned voice. _"You do know that we're about to jump into a potential battle, right? This isn't the time to be flirting or anything…"_

_ "Ohhh…be quiet Beanie!"_

**…**

"Ohhh…" Sakuyamon sat up with a heavy groan escaping her lips. A cold breeze assaulted her body and looking down she quickly saw that her kimono had a number of tears in it. One whole sleeve was missing, baring her left arm while what remained was barely hanging onto her shoulders. Quickly clutching one hand to her kimono to prevent it from falling off, she picked up her wand and looked around, her gaze quickly falling on the form of Gallantmon as he turned to look at her, his gold-colored eyes filled with a mixture of worry and relief.

From within her blue-colored data sphere, Rika's breath caught in her throat. Burnt, half-melted wings twitched over fire-blackened armor that glowed a dull-red in some places. Cracks lay everywhere and whole sections of the Royal Knight's armor were missing. A line of static ran the length of his body. But Gallantmon still stood tall, refusing to show so much as a sign of the strain that his body was under just to continue standing.

"Are…are you okay, Rika?" Gallantmon asked shakily. As he spoke, a piece of his visor creaked and fell off, revealing a piece of the face that lay underneath it, smiling at her.

_Takato…_ Shaking her head, Sakuyamon got to her feet, brushing off her now tattered dress while keeping her kimono closed.

"I was about to ask you the same thing," she asked, walking over to him. Gallantmon's armor groaned slightly as he shifted on his feet.

_"We're fine,"_ chuckled the knight in Takato's voice.

_"Yeah,"_ chimed in Guilmon exuberantly. _"It's going to take more than that digimon's bad breath to take us out!"_

The sound of metal shrieking as one of Gallantmon's wings tore off from his back and collapsed to the ground punctuated the silence of the battlefield. Sakuyamon looked at the knight with an impassive expression on her face.

_How stubborn can these two get?_ she wondered dryly.

"Right now, I'd say all it'd take is for someone to breathe on you guys to knock you over. Come here."

Reaching out, Sakuyamon carefully placed one hand on the knight's chest, and a glow of power flowed between the two. Slowly, ever so slowly, rents and cracks began to repair themselves until…

Sakuyamon staggered as the healing light suddenly winked out of existence. Gallantmon caught her quickly, but his own footing nearly gave away on him. Within her data sphere, Rika chuckled weakly.

_"Told you that was all it took."_

_"Rika,"_ spoke up Renamon's voice. _"I'm…sorry. It appears that our power is almost spent. I'm afraid that there's nothing more that we can do to heal Gallantmon's injuries."_

"We should be fine though, right?" asked Gallantmon, shifting uncomfortably. "I mean…um…we beat the bad guy, right?"

_Why is he acting so weird?_ Rika wondered, sensing a trickle of awkwardness flowing through their link. Scowling beneath her facemask, Sakuyamon took a peak into the knight's mind with her mental eye, only to stop as a bright blush erupted on her face.

_"Boys will be boys…"_ came the memory of her conversation with her mother as she immediately adjusted her grip on her tattered kimono.

_"I would not be so quick to dismiss our opponent just yet, Gallantmon,"_ spoke up Renamon's voice from the shaman's lips, hefting her wand. _"Don't you still feel the pressure from before?"_

"Huh?" Gallantmon's gold-colored eyes blinked before nodding. "Yeah… I still feel it."

_"So he's still out there?"_ asked Rika, hefting her wand. _"Just great. We hit him with everything we had and he still comes up smiling."_

_ "Um…actually we haven't even seen him yet…"_

_ "How observant, Guilmon,"_ replied Rika irritably. _"Ugh. We'd better pull back before…"_

"Hold on," frowned Gallantmon. "Why _hasn't_ he attacked us yet?"

Rika blinked. _Good question. Why hasn't he come looking for trouble if he's still capable of it?_

A gust of wind blew over the two Megas. Looking up they both found Crusadermon descending towards them with Justimon and Lilithmon rapidly following behind.

"Hey guys," greeted Gallantmon as they landed.

"What's the situation?" asked Crusadermon brusquely, looking the two Megas over critically.

"Looks pretty obvious to me," spoke up Lilithmon. "These two look pretty banged up. But where's the digimon they were fighting?"

"It's still out there," said Sakuyamon. "If you can just give me a moment…"

The shaman priestess pointed her wand out ahead of her. A light materialized around it feebly, and Sakuyamon bit her lip. A moment later, her arm began to shake and she growled in frustration, the light winking out of existence.

"Sakuyamon…" began Gallantmon, placing a hand on her shoulder. Sakuyamon took a deep breath, steadying herself from the knight's presence. Closing her eyes, she gathered her focus and the light re-materialized. Wind began to pick up, dispersing the smoke that lay around them.

"Nice one, Wildcat," nodded Justimon in appreciation. "Now where's the…?" Justimon blinked beneath his helm as his gaze fell upon Daemon's figure. He was presently sitting on his knees, claws gripping his head. Electricity danced around his body, and with every spark, his figure warped and distorted, appearing as though there were something beneath it that threatened—no, _demanded—_to be released. Blue fire flared around Daemon's wings and the Tamers fell back, heat pressing against them like a solid wall.

"Whoa!" exclaimed Justimon in surprise. "What the…?"

"Guys?" began Sakuyamon, the light around her wand flashing. "We've got to get out of here…_now!"_

They would not have time to even try however. As though detecting their presence, Daemon reared his head upwards and his gaze fell heavily upon them. His face warped, becoming skull-like in appearance before a flash returned it to its original, demonic appearance. Blue fire licked at his fangs as he sighted on them and fired.

**"Algol's Flame!"** he bellowed, firing a sphere of blue fire at the Tamers, who promptly scattered. Justimon leapt into the air, firing round after round of his _Justice Burst_ attack. The blue lasers failed to come even close to the Super Ultimate, bursting into shards of data in mid-flight. Swearing under his breath, Justimon raised his cybernetic arm, enlarging it and then slamming it to the streets.

**"Thunder Clap!"** Justimon shouted in the dual voices of Ryo and Cyberdramon, causing the streets to erupt and splinter from the force of the blow. Daemon abruptly lost his footing as shockwaves ripped into him, but he refused to go down. Snarling, Daemon stormed forward, and Justimon found himself being pushed backwards by the searing wall of heat that advanced ahead of him.

"Hey! What the…?" Justimon was cut off as his back hit the wall of a building. _Dammit…_

A roar erupted from Daemon's mouth as he surged forward. The wave of heat hit Justimon full force, melting armor and causing his scarf to catch fire. The Super Ultimate smashed one claw into Justimon's face, driving him into the building and causing its foundations to shatter. The building, all twelve floors of it, came crashing down on top of Justimon as Daemon pulled back and set his sights on the remaining Megas.

**…**

Daemon snorted disdainfully, steam emerging from his nostrils. Before he could do anything else however, electricity again began to flow over his body, causing him to double over in pain. For the briefest of moments, the faint image of a human arm splintered away from his demonic one. Snarling, Daemon closed his eyes and concentrated.

_"Do not resist me boy,"_ he growled. _"You want to fight those that have wronged you, don't you? They are here, and _I_ have the power to destroy them. This is what you want. All you have to do is sit back and give me your power…"_

The surge of electricity flared and the human arm began to solidify. With a roar, he jabbed a burning claw into the human arm, sending a burst of blue fire into it. Pain erupted in Daemon's body as he heard a scream in the deepest recesses of his mind. Daemon smiled to himself. The pain itself was nothing that he couldn't handle, and indeed it gave him a renewed sense of strength.

_"That is it, boy,"_ Daemon crooned with a dark laugh as the human arm disappeared, merging back with his demonic limb. _"All I need is your hatred; your wrath. Even if you direct it towards me, I will only become stronger."_ Daemon flexed his claws before turning back up to face the Tamers. _"Now…"_

The incoming fist of Gallantmon smashing into his face abruptly cut him off, sending him rearing backwards in surprise. Nonetheless, Daemon turned his baleful gaze towards the Royal Knight and smiled.

_"Even your anger will do nothing but strengthen me…"_

**…**

Gallantmon staggered to his feet as Sakuyamon rose up beside him.

"This…is not good," he said as he saw Justimon launch himself forward, firing at the Demon Lord. "We need a plan."

"You don't need to tell me that," scowled Sakuyamon. "The only question is…what plan? This guy has already taken our best shots and he still keeps coming." Sakuyamon winced as Justimon was suddenly being driven back by Daemon's heat barrier. "Ryo's not fairing any better than we did either."

"There's _got_ to be something we can do," growled Gallantmon. "We can't just retreat with a guy this powerful on the loose! The military won't even stand a chance against him!"

Sakuyamon ground her teeth together in frustration. "I know you're right, Takato. But we can't use our cards in these forms, and if we devolved to use them, we'd run into problems the second we tried. I'm too weak to try casting a spell, and you…"

"No, there is something I can do." Gallantmon pulled one hand into a tight fist. "The Sephirot."

"Wait. Isn't that that weird program that you said you picked up three years ago? Takato, you haven't been able to use it since you got it…"

Crusadermon landed next to the pair.

"Indeed. Even I have been unable to use mine since those events from three years ago. At any rate, your armor is a wreck. Even if you could activate the Sephirot you were given, you would not be able to use it. In all likelihood, you would simply destroy yourself."

"What do you mean?" asked Sakuyamon.

"The Sephirot draws its power from various sources, but its primary source is the connection that a Royal Knight has with Yggdrasil. While it has…other properties similar to the digignomes, it is hardly free from any energy costs. Without a connection to a strong, stable source of power, a digimon using the Sephirot is forced to rely on their own strength. It is very risky to use it on your own. Gallantmon's condition would prevent him from utilizing it on his own."

"But it's our only shot!" exclaimed Gallantmon "We can pull back and get MarineAngemon's help, but…" The sound of a building collapsing abruptly drowned out their argument. All turned in the direction of the source as a cloud of dust fell over them. Raising her wand, Sakuyamon again dispersed the dust, revealing the form of Daemon as he stood triumphantly over the shattered ruins of a building. Of Justimon, there was no sign.

Then, something odd happened to Daemon. He doubled over and his body began to distort—_splinter_ in two—and ghostly limbs began to separate from him. Daemon was now speaking aloud, as if to a voice that only he could hear.

"_Do not resist me boy,"_ he growled. _"You want to fight those that have wronged you, don't you? They are here, and _I_ have the power to destroy them. This is what you want. All you have to do is sit back and give me your power…"_

"What did he say?" asked Sakuyamon. "Did he just completely lose his mind or something? Who's he talking to?"

As they watched, one of the phantom limbs became more solid. Daemon continued to mutter to himself as he raised one claw up before plunging it inwards. Blue fire assaulted the phantom hand. Sakuyamon jerked suddenly as a scream suddenly erupted in her mind, born through her shamanistic connection towards the world around her. An image flooded her mind of a young boy, spilling out into the link she bore with Gallantmon. Shock filled her. Even tired and worn out as she was a suspicion was already dawning in her mind as to what was going on. And judging from what she was sensing from Gallantmon, he shared that same feeling.

"Did he biomerge?" whispered Gallantmon aloud.

A sudden surge of emotion spilled forth from Gallantmon's side of the connection, and before anyone could react, the Royal Knight surged forward and smashed his fist into Daemon's face, ignoring the blistering heat that poured off his body. Daemon staggered against the blow, but quickly recovered.

"_Even your anger will do nothing but strengthen me…"_ the Demon Lord said with a note of triumph in his voice. Gallantmon narrowed his eyes and lashed out again, his fist flaring with crimson light. Daemon raised his hand and caught the blow. Blue fire erupted in his claws and raced up Gallantmon's arm, causing the remaining armor to glow brightly and begin melting. Gallantmon gritted his teeth against the pain of sizzling flesh and pushed himself forward, smashing his helm into Daemon's face.

Daemon did not so much as budge from the attack, and instead the remains of Gallantmon's helmet shattered, breaking apart into shards of data, exposing a humanoid face of red scales and brown hair. Chuckling darkly to himself, Daemon opened his mouth.

_"Stubborn. Just what I'd expect from a Royal Knight _and_ a Digidestined. Even when you know you don't stand a chance you keep on fighting."_ Daemon grabbed Gallantmon by the sides of his face and pressed his claws into his exposed flesh. Scales began to burn as Daemon poured heat into his claws. Biting back a groan of pain, Gallantmon clamped his hands around Daemon's, trying to remove the burning appendage. But the limb would not move. Instead it tightened his grip. _"You amuse me, but even amusements such as you reach their limits. I think you need a lesson, Chosen Child. A lesson in how to give up in the face of greater power…"_

**"Spirit Strike!"**

Four elemental foxes looped around Gallantmon's body and smashed into Daemon's face. Daemon howled as they wrapped around him and clawed at him, forcing him to let go of Gallantmon. The Royal Knight staggered, nearly collapsing in the process, but he stayed firm.

_"Takato!"_ came Rika's fervent voice through their link._ "Now's your chance! Get out of there!"_

Gallantmon shook his head. The pain in his face burned him to the core, but at the same time they lit a fire within him. All thought seemed to disappear, save for the need to defeat Daemon and free the Tamer trapped within.

_"Not…yet,"_ Takato replied, narrowing his eyes. _"We…we can still take this guy."_

_ "Um…Takato?"_ came Guilmon's worried voice. _"How do we do that? Our weapons were destroyed earlier, and we still can't use the Sephirot. We don't even have much power left."_

_ "We do have a weapon, boy,"_ said Takato firmly. _"But only if we can bear it for a second. Will you…help me?"_

Outwardly Gallantmon's eyes widened as within, Guilmon caught a glimmer of what Takato's plan was.

_"Let's do it, Takato!"_

_ "All right!"_ nodded the boy from within his data sphere. Reaching over his shoulder, Gallantmon took hold of his remaining ruined ring. An uncountable number of razor-sharp blades rose upwards in response to his touch. Grimacing, the two partners steeled themselves and pulled. Pain ripped through their shoulder as they tore the wing free from their body. They swung the wing around and its many blades stiffened, writhing from the unexpected act. Daemon tore Sakuyamon's fox spirits away from his face and glared at Gallantmon.

_"Now!"_ Takato and Guilmon shouted as one, and together they thrust their bladed wing forward, skewering Daemon through his chest. Daemon jerked at the unexpected attack, and looked up at Gallantmon, his expression showing complete surprise. A moment later however, Daemon raised one hand and fired a black blast of energy at Gallantmon, striking him dead center in the chest and hurling him backwards. Armor cracked and broke from the force of the blow, and Gallantmon's body began to break apart.

**…**

Sakuyamon's eyes widened in horror as she watched Gallantmon collapse, his body already separating. All at once, she was back on that day from three years ago, when Lucemon murdered Guilmon.

_"No…No!"_ Rika shouted from within her data sphere. _"If they separate now, then they'll…"_

Her wand glowed brightly, encapsulating the two in a sphere of glowing light as they finished separating. Snorting at the barrier, Daemon raised one clawed hand, darkness swirling in the center of his palm.

In one second, Crusadermon rapidly descended upon Daemon with a howl, slashing at him with her sash blades. The blades erupted into flames before they could even reach their target, but Crusadermon did not let the failure deter her, and instead pressed forward with her Pile Bunker shield. Catching the oncoming blow, Daemon tossed the Royal Knight to the side contemptuously, where she smashed into a nearby building. In the next second, Lilithmon rushed forward, lashing out with her decayed arm. The talons raked across Daemon's arm and Daemon quickly caught her by the wrist. Roughly pulling her forward, Daemon flipped her over onto the ground and crushed his foot into her stomach brutally.

"Ah-ah, my dear," Daemon said, wagging a finger at her. "You have no place in a battlefield such as this. Don't make me regret sparing you."

"Wha…?" Lilithmon raised an eyebrow, but Daemon did not comment any further, and promptly kicked her into Crusadermon, who was crawling out of the building she had been sent into. Snorting again, Daemon opened his mouth, blue fire gathering within.

**"Twin Blades of Beauty and Truth!"**

Daemon stopped abruptly as two rings of pink energy suddenly surrounded him and began to shrink, trapping his arms by his sides. The rings continued to shrink, and Daemon began to feel pain from their constriction. Growling in annoyance, Daemon pressed against his restraints, but for a moment, they refused to so much as give against his strength. Instead they tightened further. Looking up at the shaman who stood a short distance away, one hand pressed against the protective barrier surrounding Guilmon and Takato while the other pointed her wand directly in his direction.

**"Algol's Flame!"** Daemon roared. Rearing backwards, he fired a ball of fire directly at Sakuyamon. The shaman disappeared from view, taking her charge with her, and reappeared directly in the air above Daemon. Her lips were pressed against each other in a hard, thin line that spoke of tremendous strain.

_"We have one shot at this,"_ Rika said to the darkness surrounding her data sphere.

_"Are you certain about this, Rika? We barely have any power of our own right now. You said yourself that we couldn't fuel a spell in the condition that we're in…"_

_ "We don't have a choice anymore! We've got to take this guy down, no matter what! If we don't…"_ Rika trailed off, and Renamon nodded Sakuyamon's head in understanding.

_"Very well."_

_ "We use everything we have in one shot," _said Rika. Winds of power were already blowing around her, causing her hair to rise above her shoulders._ "If we can reach whoever is inside Daemon and help give him enough power, he might be able to break out of the biomerge. If it works…"_ Rika clenched her eyes shut and shook her head. _"No. I can't think like that. It _will_ work!"_

Sakuyamon winced beneath her mask as Daemon pushed against his restraints. Cracks began to appear on the rings of energy as they strained against the Demon Lord's strength.

_"We have to work quickly,"_ grunted Renamon's voice. _"He's going to break free!"_

_ "All right."_ Taking a deep breath, Sakuyamon slashed her wand through the air, casting a wave of white light that spread outwards, illuminating the smoke-filled battle zone.

_"White light brings with it sight. Disperses the mists that cloud. The home calls its loved ones."_

The white light intensified and Daemon broke free from the rings that held him. Daemon opened his mouth, blue fire already appearing in the back of his throat as he took aim.

**"Algol's Fla—!"** he began as the white light increased in its intensity, slamming into his vision. Daemon resisted the urge to shout in pain as the light stabbed into the very core of his body like a million daggers. He could feel it wriggling towards the human boy that lay within him. As though he were responding to the light began to move within. Daemon's form began to blur and distort once more.

It was just then that a series of explosions erupted all over the battlefield, causing the light to wink out of existence.

Sakuyamon screamed as her body was unexpectedly racked by intense pain.

**…**

Kenta looked up at the sky as the clouds of smoke were illuminated by a series of explosions. MarineAngemon looked worriedly at the boy while next to him Ayaka swallowed noticeably and took his hand into her own.

"Pihpihpih?" asked MarineAngemon, indicating the explosions off in the distance.

Kenta swallowed as he heard the sound of something moving fast through the air. It was a sound that he had taken for granted a thousand times before.

The sound of jet fighters as they flew over the city.

"It sounds like the military's here…"

**…**

A/N: Let it be said that school around midterms is very, very obtrusive and always problematic when it comes to having any free time. Hence my lack of updates for an obscenely longer amount of time than I would have liked. My sincere apologies for the lack of updates, and I must apologize for the future as well. School is going to start picking up next week as I begin an internship and two more exams, leaving me with even less time to work with. I'll try to work around my schedule as best as I can though. Until next update.

-Crazyeight

* * *

10


	48. Pulse

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.

Revival

Chapter: 48/ Pulse

Carefully, Suzie dropped her hands from her ears. She glanced up at the sky, tracking the fighter craft as they made their pass.

"Great," she grumbled. "The military's here."

"Do you think the other's are all right, Suzie?" asked Antylamon worriedly to her partner, who was presently sitting astride her shoulder.

"I sure hope so," replied Suzie, pursing her lips together. "They're usually pretty good at taking care of themselves, but that weird thing that happened to you the second we stepped outside…" Suzie shook her head and looked over at her partner. "How are you feeling? Do you need another stamina card?"

"I…should be fine for now. Whatever it was that happened earlier seems to have diminished as soon as the military made their attack. I don't believe I'll have anything to worry about."

"For now anyways." Raising her hand over her eyes, she peered towards the smoke-filled battlefield. "We're almost there and I'm getting a really bad feeling about this. What did the military use just then? That bright light—the second one—didn't look like any explosion I've seen a bomb or missile make."

Antylamon raised an eyebrow. "Have you seen a non-digital weapon explode like that before?"

"Well…on TV anyway. And I don't mean from anime, Antylamon. I just so happen to watch the news every now and then."

"I know you do. I watch it with you." Antylamon got into a crouch. "We should hurry. Hold on tight, Suzie!"

Reaching up, Antylamon placed a massive, reassuring hand on her partner to ensure that she wouldn't fall, and then, using her powerful legs, she leapt into the air. The city streets quickly disappeared beneath the flock of rooftops that now flew by them. Suzie gasped at the sight. Under normal circumstances she would have whooped and hollered with joy at the chance of her partner being able to perform such acrobatic feats, as they could never have such 'outings' without a battle involved, but the situation prevented her from enjoying herself. Suzie swallowed nervously as the smoke loomed even closer now, dipping ever so slightly, indicating their descent. Suzie closed her eyes tightly, steeling herself for the impact that was coming up.

A slight shudder went through her partner as they landed and once more they were in the air.

_I keep forgetting how good she is at her landings,_ Suzie found herself thinking with a relieved smile. Air pushed down on her from above as they flew through the air. A moment later, they began their descent again. Suzie patted her partner's head before Antylamon lifted her off her shoulder and set her down on the ground.

"We're here," said the giant, rabbit Deva digimon, looking around her. "Looks like there was quite the fight here."

"You said it," replied Suzie. "But where is everybo—Rika!"

Suzie's cry caused Antylamon's eyes to swivel around. Following the direction that her partner was looking in, Antylamon quickly zeroed in on Rika's form, lying on the ground, unconscious. Collapsed on the ground next to her were the unmoving figures of Renamon, Takato, and Guilmon. Suzie broke into a run towards her friends.

"Suzie, wait!" called out Antylamon in a warning voice. "There may still be dange—!"

A powerful roar cut across the air, driving both Antylamon and Suzie to the ground and forcing them to cover their ears. Grimacing through the noise, Antylamon swung her head around, trying to locate its source.

_There's nothing but smoke and fire!_ she thought desperately. _I can't see a thing! But I sense something out there. And that's definitely not a jet engine…_

As if to confirm her fears, smoke was suddenly blasted away by a powerful gust of wind, revealing a burning, demonic figure rising from off the ground. The creature, Daemon, looked down at his claws, as though contemplating them carefully before stretching his wings. The air wavered around him and he set his sights first on Antylamon, and then on Suzie. For an instant, only an instant, Suzie felt as though her heart had stopped. The way Daemon was looking at her, the very force of his presence, held her paralyzed with fear. She could see murder in his eyes, and instantly knew beyond a shadow of a doubt, he would try to kill her.

A trickle of electricity rose across his body, breaking the paralysis. Daemon took a step forward, his eyes narrowing dangerously.

At that moment, Antylamon lunged forward, hands transforming into giant, double-bladed axes. The weapons swung outwards in wide, sweeping, upward arcs that sliced through the air towards Daemon. The Demon Lord deftly stepped into her attack and ducked down, dodging both blades and her massive arms before counterattacking by smashing his right hands claws into her stomach.

Antylamon gagged as the breath immediately left her body from the force of the impact, and behind her Suzie's hands went to her stomach as she felt the same thing happen to her. Her legs trembled and white sparks flew across her vision, but she held firm.

"H-Hang on…An-Antlya…mon…" she gasped, quickly scrabbling for her digivice and cards._ Oh man… I…I can't breathe. Antylamon! H-Hang on…_

**"Dark Spreader,"** Daemon intoned, an inky blackness crawling out from his claws and spreading across Antylamon's stomach. Antylamon struggled against his grip, but Daemon simply dug his claws in harder, causing shining sparkles of data to fly free. Suzie jerked suddenly as she fumbled her digivice from out of her pocket, dropping it to the ground with a hard clatter as her legs finally gave out on her and she collapsed to her knees. She hugged her arms around herself, gasping harshly.

"Ah! A-Antyla…mon!" Suzie clenched her eyes shut as she felt something spread throughout her body, mirroring the darkness that flowed freely across Antylamon. A dark smirk spread across Daemon's face…

…and then a spasm racked his body as a ring of electricity raced up his body. Blue fire dimmed and the Demon Lord fell away from Antylamon, releasing her as he did so. Antylamon collapsed heavily to the ground, unmoving. Suzie looked up at Daemon with a groan. His body was deforming, destabilizing. Becoming little more than a blur of static before finally, as though seized by a will desperate to survive, stabilizing itself.

"Behave, boy," said Daemon in a cold tone. "I know how badly you must want to crush the girl, but you must be patient." He swung his gaze towards Suzie, and a cruel smirk drew across his face. "Learn to take pleasure in waiting. It provides its own…entertainment."

Rings of electricity suddenly tore up Daemon's body, causing him to stagger and become unstable again. As Suzie watched, a human hand began to materialize just above Daemon's own arm. It was blurry—_ghost-_like in its appearance. And it appeared to be trying to break free.

_What the heck is going on?_

Daemon's claws suddenly reared up towards his face, and the Demon Lord howled in pain.

_"Get out!"_ screamed a new voice from Daemon's mouth._ "Get out of me!"_

Suzie's eyes widened in shock. The voice was muffled and badly distorted, but a sudden thought occurred to her.

_Is he…biomerged with a human?_

Suzie had no time to think upon the matter, as pain in her stomach once again seized her, causing her to double over and gag. She gasped horribly, trying to settle herself, but the pain refused to leave her. Looking over at Antylamon revealed that her partner was in just as dire straits as she was, as the darkness continued to crawl over her body. She…_they_ were helpless.

She tried to push herself up. _Where's the air force at a time like this? Didn't they just fly over? _Suzie strained her ears for any sign of the fighter craft coming back. She could hear them distantly, but they were getting closer.

But would they get there quickly enough?

A shadow fell over her. Looking up, she found Daemon towering above her. A spark of electricity danced upwards from his chest to his head, but he had become stable now. The Demon Lord raised one hand and a blue fire lit in his palm.

"It looks as though I don't have as much time as I thought," Daemon mused. "I suppose I'll just have to make do…"

_"Suzie!"_

A new shadow fell upon them, engulfing the both of them. Ignoring the shadow that continued to spread across her body, Antylamon's massive form fell out of the sky, one mighty arm already swinging through the air, intending to swat him away from her partner. Daemon snorted contemptuously and caught the blow before it could even touch him. Twisting sharply, he hurled the Ultimate to the side. Trying to stay in the fight, Antylamon immediately transformed one of her arms into an axe and slashed upwards, catching Daemon clear across the face. Daemon rocked backwards from the blow as data sprayed through the air. One hand went up to his face, touching the thin scar that now lay there. Crimson flowed down his face, dripping onto his fangs. For an instant, Daemon just stood there, as though transfixed by what had just happened to him. Antylamon, clutching her stomach, shifted and began to get up, eying Daemon warily. The pressure he had been exerting was continuing to weaken.

_Does that mean…he's weakening?_ the former Deva wondered._ At any rate, I have to finish this while he's distracted._

Steadying herself, she raised her axe-morphed arm and lashed out, intent on delivering the finishing blow.

Daemon caught the attack before it could even reach him.

**…**

He was confused. There was no getting around that. He was trapped in a storm of emotion and internal fire that left him howling with rage, leaving him with no time to think. He could _feel_ something pulling on him from outside though. Something that tugged forcefully on something inside of him. What it was, he did not know, but quite frankly it scared him, and at times he found himself struggling against it…whatever it was. There was sometimes a voice that spoke to him, cruelly, and he would shout and struggle against it. But more often than not, he would be drowned in that fire that both surrounded him and raged within him. He _saw_ through eyes that did not feel like his own. Felt power from fists that did not belong to him—for how could they with their demonic, animal-like appearance?—smash into…what were they?

_Digimon…_

The word—the name, set off new tempests inside of him, and all of a sudden the voice that spoke to him felt that much easier to listen to. And yet…

…

_He struggled against the arms that held him beneath the cold, dark water, staring into the distorted, red colored eyes that lay behind the hood. He wanted desperately to be free, but the beast was far too strong for that. He wanted to breathe—_needed_ to breathe, but the water…the water…_

_ There was something in it that made his heart scream in horror. Had he been able to, he would have been more than happy to give voice to the terror that filled him, regardless of whether or not it was the 'manly' thing to do. Even his lungs were holding back, as though they recognized that the water represented some danger that went beyond simply drowning._

_ In the end however, his lungs gasped for breath—for air—and in return, they met liquid darkness._

**…**

He despised that voice. He did not trust it. It kept him silent. Prevented him from acting on his own, only to call to him when it wanted that _something—_the fire perhaps?—that was inside of him. And when he refused, it simply took. He was powerless to stop it. He couldn't do anything. He could barely see anyway…

At least, until that strange, warm _light_ fell upon him.

The light that came from the strange woman with a fox mask.

_"White light brings with it sight. Disperses the mists that cloud. The home calls its loved ones."_

The light…it felt as though he were being woken up by his mother. The gentle tone drifted down to him from the darkness surrounding him, and the storm inside of him began to calm down. Opening his eyes, he found himself trapped inside of a sphere of darkness. At first he was confused, but memories came crashing down upon him, and all at once he felt a horrifying sense of claustrophobia. He wanted out. He _needed_ out. He wanted to get rid of whatever it was that had trapped him. He thrashed, not with his limbs but with his mind. His mind lashed out instinctively, attacking the creature that held him. It responded with pain, stabbing at him, burning him…trying to keep him in line as though he were cattle to be prodded along. The tempest resumed, this time turning against his tormentor.

The beast—_Daemon—_simply laughed at him for his struggles. It took great delight in them. The torrent increased in intensity as he continued to push against his captor. Even the presence of _her_ did not so much as slow him dow—

Blood.

His mind went white and all sight disappeared. He could taste it on his lips. They weren't his, but he could still taste the blood anyway. Every part of him went rigid as he felt it crawl down his face and into his mouth. The memory from that day in the tunnels from so long ago flooded him and rage stormed forward once again. The ghosts… The fear… He blinked, and he saw through his eyes again. A tall, rabbit creature with an axe for a hand was moving to cut him down. The inner fires focused and then…

**…**

Daemon caught the axe before it could even touch him. Baring down on it, he roughly pulled Antylamon forward and grabbed her by the throat. The Ultimate gagged in surprise, already struggling to break free. Daemon snorted disdainfully. The fires within him burned with ever greater intensity. A need to destroy filled him and he tightened his grip on the rabbit Deva. Antylamon increased her struggles, morphing her still-free arm into an axe. The world became a blur all of a sudden as a roar was let loose from his mouth. Inside, Atsuo lost all control of himself. The world simply stopped existing for a moment to him and he gave in to the rage that burned ever hotter.

The sound of a loud snap filled the air and a second later, Daemon dropped Antylamon's limp body to the ground, her arms slowly morphing back into their normal states. Inside, Atsuo breathed heavily. The fires had died back a bit now, leaving him with some time to take in what had just happened. And…just…what _did_ happen? Why was the digimon just lying there so still?

He felt stunned. The way the digimon was looking, her eyes so blank…

His stomach heaved. He felt sick.

Rubble heaved and suddenly a flurry of pink and yellow was upon him, shouting at him. An earth-shattering blast struck his face, but the Demon Lord barely budged against it. Lashing out, he grabbed Crusadermon by the throat and smashed her into the ground. There was the sound of more rubble breaking apart, and then a blackened scarf was around him, pinning his arms to his side.

_Justimon…_ growled the voice from the darkness around Atsuo. Arms of immense strength pushed against the scarf, but it surprisingly held firm, despite its condition. Heat burned off his wings with even greater intensity, once more causing the scarf to catch fire. The scarf loosened and the pressure from behind him lessoned as Justimon was forced to retreat.

Spinning around, Daemon came face to face with Justimon. His armor was a melted mess. Portions of it were heavily warped, and even appeared to run into areas that they weren't supposed to, causing the Mega to appear hunchbacked as he tried to maintain what flexibility he could Metal creaked and groaned, but the Legendary Tamer stood firm.

"Die already," growled Daemon, raising an arm. Darkness licked at his claws.

"I don't think so," came the sultry, but obviously angry voice of Lilithmon as she descended behind him. **"Phantom Pain!"**

A cloud of noxious gas greeted the Demon Lord as he spun around to face Lilithmon, and he staggered backwards, coughing. Taking advantage of his present state, the Demon Lord of Lust lunged forward, raking his face with the claws of her decayed arm. Daemon gritted his fangs as more pain tore through his body. Biting down against crying out, he grabbed Lilithmon's arm and smashed a fist into her face. His arm reared backwards as her head jerked backwards, sparkling data flying free from her nose.

A well-timed kick, courtesy of Justimon, smashed Daemon to the side, preventing him from following through the rest of the way.

Armor fell away from Justimon's chest as his armor, now stretched to its limits, broke. Justimon kept himself between Lilithmon and Daemon as they both recovered.

"Lilithmon," he said, trying to not sound as worn out as he felt. "Are you okay?"

"Peachy," she replied, sitting up while holding her nose. "You're not looking so good though…"

"I'm fine," breathed Justimon, hoping that she wouldn't notice the slight tremor in his arms and legs. Lilithmon narrowed her eyes.

"Right. Sure you are."

"Lilithmon. I need you to get Suzie out of here."

"What?" Lilithmon rose suddenly to her feet, adjusting her dress so that she wouldn't trip as she did so. "Are you nuts? I can't just leave you to fight this guy on your own!"

"Suzie's partner is down! She's vulnerable! She can't…"

A loud scream coming from Suzie cut across the Legendary Tamer's words and both he and Lilithmon turned to face her. The girl was sitting next to the unmoving form of Antylamon, her face pressed against hers. Her neck and arm were twisted at an unnatural angle.

"Oh no…" whispered Lilithmon, her humanoid hand covering her mouth in shock.

As they watched, Antylamon's eyes closed, and her body began to destabilize.

**…**

"A-Antylamon…?"

Nothing came from the Ultimate level rabbit Deva as her body blurred. She was dying! Suzie could feel it. _Dying!_ And there was nothing she could do! All because she wasn't strong enough to help her partner when she needed her the most!

_What was I thinking?_ The thought hammered home as Suzie caressed her partner's soft fur. A sob hitched itself in her throat and tears threatened to spill forth from her eyes. She held them back though, not wanting to lose sight of her partner before she…before she…

Suzie gasped as her hand went through Antylamon's slowly fading form. Sparkles of white light began to rise from her unmoving form. She became transparent—ghost-like in appearance.

"No…" Suzie whispered in denial, clutching her digivice tightly in one hand. "No…"

She balled her free hand tightly into one fist as tears began to flow down her face, no longer encountering resistance. "No! You _can't_ leave me! Antylamon! You can't go! I…_I won't let you go! Lopmon!"_

Light burst free from Suzie's digivice, engulfing Antylamon. Her eyes shot open as energy suddenly surged through her, causing words to involuntarily come to her mouth.

**"Antylamon! Digivolve tooo…"**

**…**

_"…I repeat,"_ spoke up the pilot as he flew over the smoking city. _"We are making another pass. We have a visual of enemy target and multiple bogies in the field. They might be the Tamers. Requesting instructions on whether or not we should continue deployment."_

The pilot waited for a moment as his fighter craft roared through the air. The pilot frowned, not liking this development. It hadn't been all that long ago that he and his received orders to fly down to Shinjuku, a known trouble sight for the creatures known as digimon, and enter into direct combat with them.

_The last time had been three years ago,_ the pilot thought disconcertingly, remembering the devastating attack that had been made then._ Three digimon against the Tamers, and it just about wrecked the place. We couldn't even do anything then…_

But that wasn't true anymore…was it? The pilot glanced down at his controls, eying the button that was connected to his newly installed weapon.

_The scientists said that this Kamikaze blaster would work on digimon,_ he thought with cold realization.

_"Command. I repeat, multiple bogies in the field. Some of them could be the Tamers. Requesting confirmation for instructions…"_

_ "Copy that Gojira-1,"_ spoke up a voice on the radio._ "Continue deployment."_

_ "Command. I repeat, the Tamers might be in the field, fighting the enemy target…"_

_ "Gojira-1," _interrupted the voice harshly._ "Please confirm last transmission." _There was a pause before the voice resumed once more in a more agitated voice._ "Gojira-1, confirm last…"_

_ "Understood, command,"_ the pilot replied, grating his teeth as he tightened his hand on the trigger._ "Continuing deployment."_

As he and his squadron flew ever closer to the battlefield, the pilot whispered a silent prayer to himself, hoping that his next actions would be the right ones.

And that was when a light exploded in the city ahead of him.

**…**

**"…Cherubimon!"**

Darkness that had only earlier been spreading across Antylamon's body now leapt forth, engulfing her completely and fully as the light of digivolution swallowed her. Light that was at once blindingly bright now dimmed, leaving only a violet and gray-colored egg-shaped shell of data that spun for several seconds until it finally shattered.

Suzie fell backwards onto her rear, one hand clutching at her chest as she fought for breath. Something…something felt…_wrong_ somehow. What it was, she couldn't quite put her finger on though…

_What…what's going on?_ she wondered, blinking past the spots of white light that dominated her vision._ What happened to Antylamon?_

Blinking her eyes again, she noticed the large shadow that seemed to swallow her entirely. Looking up, her lips parted, drawing first into a smile at what she saw…only for that very same sight to cause her smile to stop short.

Towering over her was a digimon with long ears and what appeared to be a clown's collar around its neck. Its ears were tattered and full of holes, and its mouth was pulled into a wide, cruel smile that made Suzie think of a cave. Massive arms flexed and bulged; the fingers at their ends containing none of the gentle firmness of Lopmon in any of the evolved forms she was used to seeing. And her eyes…

Suzie found herself shaking as she looked into those icy-cold, yet disturbingly mirthful yellow eyes that looked down at her. They did not fill her with any comfort. Instead, they brought forth a memory that she wished desperately to forget.

_"You cannot lose! I won't allow it!"_

"L-Lopmon…?" her voice trembled. A low growl emerged from the digimon's throat as it appeared to nod to her and held out a large, meaty palm towards her. Unconsciously, Suzie backed away, frightened by her partner. She felt something coming from her that was…_wrong_ to her in ways that went beyond her appearance.

_What happened? What did I do wrong? Did…Did I do what Takato did all those years ago? Did I turn Lopmon into a Megidramon?_

Unknowingly, her digivice activated, displaying the stats of the massive digimon.

**Cherubimon**

**Stage: Mega**

**Type: Virus**

**Special Attacks: Storm of Judgment, Lightning Spear, Terminal Judgment, Thousand Spears**

"Suzie!" shouted the voice of Lilithmon from off to the side. "Get out of there! _Now!"_

Suzie spun her head just in time to see a massive, blue-colored fireball raging towards her. Before she could even react, Lilithmon's voluptuous form was there, standing in the path of the fireball. The scorching hot inferno struck her from behind, burning at her dress and setting her back afire. Lilithmon screamed in pain, but refused to drop until the fire died down. As soon as the last of it was gone, she stood there, her back and clothes smoldering until, finally, she collapsed heavily to her knees, her hands clasping around Suzie's shoulders.

"Su…Suzie," she whispered, her fingers trembling with a desperation that demanded she try to stay conscious for as long as possible. "Get…Get out of here…"

That was it. The last of Lilithmon's strength drained away, and her body glowed brightly before separating into the two forms of Miki and Dracmon. Miki fell into Suzie's arms, leaving the younger girl stunned over what just happened.

"M-Miki…" she whispered. Looking up, she stared at Daemon, who was standing triumphantly in the street with a battered Justimon in one hand, and smoke coming from a mouth filled with blue flames.

Something within Suzie sparked, and that spark ignited a fire within her partner.

Cherubimon roared and a bolt of lightning appeared in her hand. Dark clouds drew across the sky. Thunder crashed as an untold number of lightning bolts rained down from the clouds, striking Daemon with tremendous force. Daemon struggled against the constant, innumerable, unending strikes, refusing to cry out despite the pain that they dealt him.

The boy inside of him, however, was a different story all together.

Atsuo screamed horribly as he felt the bolts of lightning smash into Daemon's body. Each strike caused his dark, digital sphere to quiver and destabilize. The toll of the battle was finally starting to show. More bolts rained down on him, and Daemon finally went down on one knee, his body once more blurring and becoming fragmented. Atsuo bit his tongue as the pain from the lightning suddenly increased in intensity. He felt something—Daemon—forcefully pulling on what was inside him again, this time with far more fervor than he had shown previously. Atsuo coughed sparkling data from his mouth, gagging as he tasted something warm and coppery on his tongue. His heart beat painfully inside his chest, and his body pixilated. Outwards, Daemon pushed himself up from off his knee…

…only to find Cherubimon suddenly in front of him, _Lightning Spear_ in one hand. Daemon didn't even have time to react as the viral digimon drove the spear directly into his chest. A blast of blue lightning illuminated the city streets for a brief moment until it died down, leaving a smoking Daemon standing beneath Cherubimon.

Cherubimon smirked at Daemon and pulled her _Lightning Spear_ from Daemon's chest. The Demon Lord collapsed to his knees, his body blurring. Pieces broke off from his face and shattered, revealing a human child's features…Atsuo.

Seeing this, Cherubimon's smirk widened and she raised her electric spear over him.

"It all ends here," she boomed in a deep, ghastly voice. "You will never hurt my Suzie again, Atsuo."

From behind her, watching the battle, Suzie blinked upon hearing the name.

"Atsuo…" she whispered. "Atsuo's here?" She could only barely see past Cherubimon. _What's going on here?_

Daemon's wings broke off and floated away from his body. He continued to break down, but he still stared defiantly at Cherubimon. Instead, he smirked back at her.

"And you will never protect your partner again," he rasped.

Cherubimon made a scoffing noise as her arm reached its maximum height. Air warped around his body and reached out, engulfing Daemon in its embrace.

Suzie's shoulders shook as she broke down into a sob completely. Everything…_everything_ was going wrong. She had come to help the others and she had failed to protect her own _partner._ Now Lopmon was digivolved into…into this…this _thing!_ And now she was planning to destroy Daemon, or Atsuo or _whoever_ it was that he seemed to have biomerged with.

_This is just like Takato and Megidramon all over again,_ she thought, her mind in complete turmoil. All at once, her nightmare came to her, flooding her mind. She hadn't been useful at all.

_I really was only in the way. All I can do is just cause others to get hurt…_

_ "That's not true,"_ whispered a voice from deep inside of her, causing Suzie's eyes to widen suddenly. _"After all, you just saved the others. You saved our partner from death by forcing her to digivolve to the Mega level. She defeated Daemon where the others combined weren't able to. And it's all thanks to you…and to the power that you gave your partner."_

Something about that voice set Suzie on edge. It was cold, almost sneering in its tone, and it caused her skin to crawl just hearing it. Looking down at herself, she saw darkness through her shirt spreading across her chest. It crawled across her in a vein-like pattern that was eerily reminiscent of what had happened with Antylamon earlier.

_"A digimon and their partner are linked,"_ came the voice of her brother from a half-remembered conversation from what felt like an eternity ago. Suzie glanced up at her partner, mortified as she saw her spear begin to dip, preparing to deliver the finishing blow. As Cherubimon's leg shifted, she saw Daemon. Parts of Atsuo's face—a face she had grown to know all too well these past few years—were clearly visible to her. Time seemed to slow down for an instant as a rush of shock filled her.

_She's going to kill him!_ a part of her screamed. Another part, the darkness that was even now creeping across her skin, merely giggled enthusiastically.

_"Let her, then,"_ it replied.

Suzie's mouth opened. A part of her wanted to shout out to Cherubimon, to encourage her for all the pain Atsuo had caused them both over the years. He had gone too far, especially towards Lopmon…

**…**

_Spinning on a dime, Suzie saw Atsuo and two of his friends coming right up to her at a rapid pace. Before she could do anything, the two other boys launched themselves at her and grabbed hold of her by the arms._

_"Let me __go!"__ she screamed, struggling against their grasp. Atsuo approached her with a sadistic grin on his face. Lopmon jumped down in front of her partner, and the two boys stiffened, expecting a retaliatory response now._

_"That thing is no big deal, guys," said Atsuo. Suzie saw that he was holding a soccer ball again. "It's not going to fight us."_

_"Leave her alone!"_

_"Or else you'll what?" laughed Atsuo, launching the ball at Lopmon. The tiny digimon leapt into the air, only to be snagged right out of it by Atsuo as his hand shot forward and grabbed her by the ear. "C'mon," he sneered. "Let's see what you __digimon__ got!"_

**…**

… And yet, another part of her…it had a different voice to add to the situation.

Suzie's mouth began to work painstakingly slowly, moving in tune with Cherubimon's spear as it began to descend towards Daemon. It was suddenly hard to breathe, as though something was preventing her from taking the breath necessary to call out to her partner.

_"Just one moment,"_ whispered the dark, sinister voice from inside of her._ "That is all that's needed. No one will blame you…"_

Suzie closed her eyes and bit her lip. It really was that easy. All it took was one moment and it would be all over. After all…didn't Atsuo deserve it for everything he had done?

**…**

_Suzie had just pulled out her notebook and placed it on her desk when a shadow fell over her._

_"You got something to say to me?" came a painfully familiar voice that caused Suzie to tense up in response._

_"Atsuo…"_

_The shadow shifted and the boy was suddenly in front of her, eyes glaring dangerously at her._

_"Look at me when I'm talking to you," he growled. "I asked you if you got something to say to me!"_

_Suzie narrowed her eyes._

_"What could I __possibly__ have to say to you, Atsuo?" she asked, heat starting to flare in her body. "And while we're at it, isn't it a little too soon to be bothering me? It's almost time for class and…"_

_"I don't care!" Atsuo slammed one hand onto Suzie's notebook. The sound was all but deafening, and all conversation in the classroom died immediately. All eyes were on the two students now. Suzie gritted her teeth and pulled herself out of her chair. It looked like a fight was going to break out whether she liked it or not. Up until yesterday she didn't think that it would ever happen despite Atsuo's hostility towards her, but now she could no longer afford to think like that. If a fight started, she wanted to be on her feet and moving._

_"Back off, Atsuo! We're in school!"_

_"Then tell your __digimon__ to back off and to not talk to me! If I __ever __see that little rat trying to make nice with me again, I'll tie its ears into a knot!"_

_Suzie ground her teeth together, seething. She had to restrain herself from throwing herself at the kid right then and there. No one ever talked about her partner like that, or even threatened them, but thoughts of her family and how they would react to her getting into a fight prevented her from doing so. The last thing she wanted right now was to cause trouble for her family._

_"And where do you get off saying stuff like that?" she replied angrily, her fingers itching to pull themselves into fists. "You already went too far yesterday. I'm amazed she even bothered to try talking to you after what you did."_

_"Just tell your __thing__ to steer clear of me if she doesn't want to be road pizza, got it?"_

_Suzie's eyes went wide with shock at that. White flooded her mind just then, and for a moment she felt as though she was suspended within that blinding light. The moment passed quickly, and the light grew into a terrible heat that consumed all of her control like dry kindling. The next thing Suzie knew her body was moving of her own accord. Letting loose an unearthly scream, her fist slammed home into Atsuo's face. She didn't give him a chance to recover as she threw herself at him, knocking them both to the ground at the exact moment that Ms. Asagi entered the room._

_"Suzie!"__ Ms. Asagi exclaimed, dropping her things and rushing over to the battle zone. "Suzie! Let him go! __Let…him…__**go! SUZIE!"**_

**…**

_"Yes…"_ whispered the dark voice as shadow began to fill Suzie's arms and face. Suzie's mouth opened once more, and a small whisper broke free.

"No…"

The shadow paused in its movement, as though surprised by the girl's response. Suzie took a deep breath and repeated her statement, this time more firmly.

"No." Her eyes flashing, she looked up at Cherubimon. The spear was mere moments away from skewering Daemon. Atsuo, his eyes carrying a dull look that belied the smirk that Daemon's outward shell was giving Cherubimon, looked upwards lifelessly. Although she couldn't see her partner's face, she was more than willing to bet that her eyes held the same, maddened, murderous expression Guilmon had when he became Megidramon.

_I don't want Lopmon to be like that!_ she thought desperately, hitching another breath. The darkness on her face and arms retreated as she shouted with all her might.

_"Lopmon! Don't do it! Let him go!"_

The spear continued to descend, and Suzie's heart fell. She was too late.

_It can't end like this! Someone. _Anyone!_ Help, please!_

White light once again washed the field of battle, and the next thing Suzie knew was the sound of jet fighters passing over just before explosions drowned them out.

**…**

Prometheus sat on the couch at the Wong's residence, calmly sipping his tea as he watched the last of the light show die down. The sound of jets flying by grew louder for a moment before finally tapering off, becoming distant, if only for a moment. Prometheus sat there for a few seconds longer, sipping his tea until, finally, he set it on the table and stood up. Slowly, he raised his hands and began to quietly applaud the smoking, battered city before him.

"Well done, Suzie," he said, a satisfied smile on his face. "You have shown me what little girls are made of."

Picking up the teacup, Prometheus rounded the couch and entered the kitchen, where he placed it in the sink, pausing for a minute to rinse it out and place it in the washer machine before heading towards the door that led outside. He slipped on his shoes and stood up, his hand pausing on the light switch. He glanced over his shoulder, and after taking in the sight of the smoke rising, he nodded.

"And now, for the next scene."

With that, he clicked the light off, and left the apartment.

**…**

A/N: Amazing what a couple days off from a class can do for you. One of my teacher's canceled Wednesday and Thursday classes. While I still have quite a bit of homework and exams to take care of, I found myself with a considerable amount of time to work with. Here is the result for today's free time.

On another note, initially I had wanted to use an actual squadron from the Japanese Self Defense Force when writing their air force showing up and knocking the stuffing out of both Tamers and Daemon, but I haven't been able to find much information on them. In the end, I made up "Gojira-1" to be a representative of a new arm of the air force designed to tackle digimon (the choice of naming being rather appropriate considering how Gojira—or as the west better knows him as, Godzilla—fits into the same area and regularly leveled Tokyo). I will be expanding on this group as time goes on, but I must admit that my lack of knowledge about the Japanese military rather severely impeded my telling of their side of the battle, and as a result, I may end up doing some edits to this chapter later on.

Until next chapter. :P

-Crazyeight

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	49. Setting the Stage

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.

Revival

Chapter: 49/ Setting the Stage

Beelzemon gasped as pain flowed through every inch off his body. All around him lay the shattered remains of his weapons—his sword, berenjena shotguns, and Deathslinger cannon. Black feathers floated down from the air, coming to rest on him and the battered street that he lay upon. Drawing his claws together, he tried to push himself off the ground, ignoring the pain that tore through his back before a metallic foot slammed down on his sternum, pushing him back down. Beelzemon coughed and grabbed the foot, trying to force it off his chest, but to no avail. His strength was all but gone now.

"Congratulations," spoke up the owner of the foot. All three of Beelzemon's now-blue eyes looked up at a dragon-like creature with shining, metallic armor. Razor sharp wings flexed behind it as it raised its claws. Two, black feathered wings, torn and sparkling as data flowed from their torn ends, hung limply in their grasp. The creature hefted them slightly before tossing them to the side. "You held out for quite a while, even when taking into consideration the injuries I inflicted upon you. You have my respect."

"Save your respect and get the hell offa me," Beelzemon growled, one claw twitching as he dropped his hands to the ground. "This isn't over yet."

The dragon creature chuckled softly, applying pressure to the former Demon Lord. "Don't be ridiculous. This battle is over. You are not Gallantmon."

"Gallantmon?" Beelzemon furrowed his brow. "You mean Pineapple Head? What's he got to do with this? Since when do you know him?"

As he spoke, slowly, so slowly, his hand began to creep towards one of his Berenjena shotguns. He kept his eyes fixated on his attacker, so as to not give himself away.

"We just have past history," chuckled the creature. "And if you insist on continuing this fight, you will never get the chance to ask him about it."

Faster than his eyes could see, the creature's tail blade whipped out and stabbed through Beelzemon's. Beelzemon screamed as his hand jerked reflexively.

"Aaargh! You…_bastard!"_ Beelzemon shouted, bringing his free hand to bear on the creature. New strength filled him as he pulled his claws tightly together. Orange light flared into existence around his fist, quickly taking the shape of a lion's face.

**"Fist…of the Be—!"  
**A human hand fell upon Beelzemon's fist, and suddenly the light winked out of existence. Blinking in surprise at the strength that had suddenly left him, Beelzemon glanced over at its owner, surprised to find that its owner was equally as human with loose, brown hair flowing down his neck. His eyes contained a glimmer of amusement and…something else as well? For some reason, the way he was looking at him made him think of Jeri's kind eyes.

Somehow, that thought felt not only wrong to him, but offensive as well.

_There's something different about this guy,_ he thought to himself._ Something's…not right about him at all. He's not human. _

Beelzemon shuddered as the human released his fist. His vision suddenly became blurry.

"Uh… Wha…what did you…do to…?"

"It'll pass," assured the human as he got to his feet. He turned up towards the dragon creature. "Did you have to beat him this badly, Maelstrom?"

"He is a ferocious fighter," explained Maelstrom, flexing his claws carefully. "I had to…_persuade_ him to see my way of thinking."

"That does not include nearly killing our targets," said the human, glowering at Maelstrom. "You have your own goals and are free to carry them out—_after_ we have finished our business. Not before."

Maelstrom pulled his tail free from Beelzemon's hand, and he grunted in response to it exiting his flesh. His vision continued to grow worse.

_I feel…so…so tired all of a sudden…_

"Anyway," the human continued, rubbing the back of his head, "the testing portion of our plan is done. Wherever Suzie goes from here is up to her now. We're moving onto our next target."

"I see." Maelstrom turned towards Beelzemon. "What about him? Do we take him with us?"

"Norn has already taken Lumemon. Another one missing will only cause complications. He stays here. However, I'm going to need to do something about his memory—and leave a little something behind for when we need him."

Kneeling down next to Beelzemon, the human placed a hand on the Demon Lord's face and he glowed softly.

"After all, if the digital world and human world are going to be saved, we need _all_ of the Seven whole and in one piece."

_Wha…?_ began Beelzemon mentally before the world blanked out around him.

**…**

Prometheus stood up and turned to face Maelstrom.

"All right," he said, raising one hand. Air warped next to him and took on a blue glow tinged with green, grid-like lines. The glowing blue aura began to rotate until a hole tore in the air. "I'll see you later. Try to stay out of trouble while I'm gone."

Maelstrom snorted, but nodded. Seeing this, Prometheus passed through the portal and disappeared, the portal quickly closing up behind him. Maelstrom turned towards the unconscious Beelzemon just in time to witness the Demon Lord's body glow and shrink, devolving into his Rookie form of Impmon. Maelstrom glared at Impmon for a moment before turning and stalking down the ruined streets. As he moved, his form began to change and alter, becoming more humanoid in appearance. Pushing his hands into pockets that were now forming as clothes appeared around him, Itsuya Takahashi gazed up at the sky with a contemplative look on his face.

His mouth and spoke.

"Well now… The next move falls to me."

He stood there for a moment longer, scowling up at the sky. After a moment, he shook his head and turned down into an alley, where he disappeared into the night's darkness, leaving only the sound of sirens and fighter craft to fill the city.

**To be continued in Tamers Requiem, Book Five: Return of Shadows…**

A/N: While the ending to this book may come off as abrupt, especially with so many unanswered questions, but I wanted to divide up the story a bit. First to give myself a bit of a reprieve in between arcs so that I can properly plan out the next one, and second to avoid another fic the length of 'Less than Human', which had been exhausting to write on its own. The opening chapters of 'Return of Shadows' will return to the second Takato and Marcus, delving into their adventures and some of the changes that have been brought about as a result of the latest upheaval, first from the X-Evolution events, and the events that have so far only been hinted at in this story. We'll also see the aftermath of this story with the Tamers as some old friends return to find things in a bit of a mess.

Until then. See you all next story. :P

-Crazyeight

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